The "Schuman Report on Europe, the State of the Union" by the Robert Schuman Foundation, a reference book on Europe has been published. This, the 6th edition in French and 3rd in English, is devoted to the means to implement to overcome the crisis, with an exclusive interview with Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank. All of the 26 articles in the "Schuman Report on Europe, State of the Union 2012" agree on one message: "the reasons calling for Europeans to stand together have never been as many as today". Using 67 commented tables and graphs and 34 colour maps, most of which are unique, the authors invite readers to learn about the challenges that the EU faces. The book is available in both French and English.

The Czech government adopted another austerity plan on 10th April to limit the country's deficit to 2.9% of the GDP in 2013 and 1.9% in 2014. Amongst other measures there will be tax increases and a limit on the indexation of pensions. The adoption of this plan over a three year span puts an end to a conflict within the tripartite Czech coalition. The centrist party, Public Affairs (VV) indeed threatened to withdraw its ministers from government if such measures were not adopted rapidly.

On 11th April the European Commission published a report that presents an overview of the economies of the candidate countries and potential candidates. The Commission details the state of the economy in Croatia, Macedonia (FYRM), Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. Reviewing at first indicators such as the employment rate, the GDP and inflation the report focuses on analysing the state of the tax system, the labour market, external trade, the monetary and financial sectors notwithstanding key political events.

On 11th April 2012 the Near East Quartet (EU, USA, Russia, UN) met in Washington in parallel to the G8 Foreign Affairs Summit. In a joint declaration the Quartet called on the international community to guarantee the payment of 1.1 billion dollars to enable the Palestinians to finalise their 2012 budget. It also encouraged the Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiation table. The Quartet also condemns the "rocket attacks launched from Gaza (under Hamas control) against Israel".

According to gross data published by the Federal Statistics Office, Germany's trade surplus has been up since the beginning of the year. In February 2012 it totalled nearly 14.7 billion euros against 13.2 billion the previous month. Over one year (February 2011-February 2012), Germany's exports towards euro zone member countries increased by 3.3% against a rise of 9.7% for exports the EU member countries that do not use the euro. Exports to third countries outside of the EU rose by 13.4% (this development concerns emerging countries in the main).

On 11th April in the Netherlands the parliamentary investigative committee presented its final report on the measures taken by the Dutch authorities to save the banks during the financial crisis. It notably concluded that the authorities had made some serious mistakes involving billions of euros during the rescue of two financial institutions, Fortis/ABN Amro and ING in 2008. According to the committee the Finance Minister and the Dutch National Bank (DNB) are said to have been inadequately prepared for a crisis of this size. Overcome, they were then pushed to take the wrong decisions.

On 11th April the Spanish Prime Minister Mario Rajoy and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk chaired the 8th Hispano-Polish meeting in Warsaw. They discussed their countries' economic situation. They also said they wanted to coordinate their position on the negotiation of the European budget 2014-2020. Moreover the Spanish Prime Minister told of his experience in the use of structural funds of which Poland is the main beneficiary.

On 10th and 11th April the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva and Prime Minister Pedro Passo Coelho were host to the Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer. On this occasion the Portuguese president declared that although recent reforms made to the Economic and Monetary Union and that the structrual reforms undertaken in Portugal were significant in overcoming the present crisis, it was just as "vital and urgent" to establish a "common agenda" Europe wide in order to promote economic revival, the creation of jobs and the strengthening of competitiveness and cohesion." During a press conference Mr Cavaco Silva said he was confident in his country's ability to keep its budgetary commitments.

On 10th April the new Romanian Environment and Forests Minister was appointed; Attila Korodi already occupied this post for one year under the government of Calin Popescu Tariceanu (2004-2008). During the investiture ceremony at the Cotroceni Palace, President Traian Basescu thanked the former Environment Minister, Laszlo Borbely for his services and welcomed the choice made by Prime Minister, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu.

Andrei Sannikov, who was the main opposition candidate to A. Lukashenko during the Belarus presidential election in 2010 and who was consequently imprisoned for the "organisation of the widespread disruption of public order", was pardoned and freed from prison 14th April. The leader of European diplomacy, Catherine Ashton, welcomed the liberation of the two opposition leaders, Mr Sannikov and his main campaign assistant Dmitri Bondarenko, but called on the regime governed by Lukashenko to free all political prisoners unconditionally and to lift all restrictions on their civic and political rights.

On 12th April Valery Ivachenko, Yulia Timoshenko's former Defence Minister from 2009 to 2010, was sentenced to five years in prison for abuse of power in an affair linked to the privatisation of a shipyard in Crimea. He is the fourth person to have taken part in Timoshenko's government to be sentenced for affairs of this kind. The supporters of the former Prime Minister continue to denounce these political manoeuvres, whilst Mr Ivachenko declared that he was innocent of the accusations brought against him.

On 12th April the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published its 5th annual report on the supervision of the execution of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights for 2011. According to the study's results the number of new cases opened is still high (1606) even though, for the first time in ten years, their number has dropped by 6%. The number of cases pending is up (+8% in comparison with 2010). Moreover the number of cases closed in 2011 with a final resolution increased by nearly 80% in comparison with 2010 (up to 816). This is the first report to reflect the new supervisory procedure introduced in 2011 in response to the 2010 Interlaken Process and the work in view of guaranteeing the long term effectiveness of the European Convention of Human Rights.

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon called on the Syrian government to respect the ceasefire that entered into force on 12th April. "The world is watching sceptically whilst the past promises made by the government in Syria have not been kept," he declared. The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on 14th April enabling the dispatch of around thirty international observers to Syria to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire. A UN supervisory mission in Syria including 250 people will be deployed by 18th April.

On 12th April NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen met Afghan President Hamid Karzai. During a speech delivered in Kabul, the Secretary General declared that NATO was still firmly committed to Afghanistan. He stressed that this commitment would continue beyond 2014. The terms of this commitment will be on the agenda of the next NATO summit that will take place at the end of May in Chicago.

On 12th April economists at the World Trade Organisation believed that world trade, after a +5% increase in 2011, is due to decline in 2012 to reach +3.7%. This slowing finds explanation in the number of shocks suffered by the world economy, notably the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

According to figures published by Eurostat on 12th April industrial production increased by 0.5% in the euro zone and by 0.2% in the EU in February 2012. This was a slight increase in comparison with January 2012. However in comparison with February 2011 industrial production was down by 1.8%. With regard to monthly variations the greatest increases were seen in the Netherlands (+13%) and Slovakia (+2.8%) and the greatest decreases in Malta (-4.6%) and in Sweden (-3.6%). With regard to annual variations the Netherlands (+6.7%) and Slovakia (+8.4%) are still rising whilst Luxembourg (-14.4%) ad Malta (-11.4%) have recorded the biggest decreases.

According to a Eurobarometer survey published on 12th April 95% of Europeans believe that access to energy is a vital condition for countries to be able to emerge from poverty. Around 80% of those interviewed believe that it is in the EU's interest to help developing countries to improve access to energy, and that as a result it has to increase its support; also the energies that we promote must be of a renewable nature.

The first world report on happiness published in April 2012 by the UN which undertook interviews in more than 155 countries and interviewing 1000 people aged 15 and over in each of these, puts European States, and within these the Nordic states, in the lead as the happiest countries in the world. Denmark indeed comes out ahead in the ranking established by the international organisation. It is followed by Finland second, Norway third and the Netherlands fourth. Sweden comes seventh. Five other countries in the EU (Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the UK) also feature amongst the first 20 in this ranking.

The Luxembourg Museum in Paris is presenting a selection of paintings by Italian Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano (1459-1517) until 15th July. A provincial Italian from a poor home, Cima succeeded thanks to his talent and became one of the greatest artists of the Venetian Renaissance. His work reveals an amazing technical skill as well as an opening up to new ideas of the time. Some pictures are being presented for the first time outside of Italy.

45 million French citizens are being called to ballot on 22nd April for the first round of the presidential election. Just one week before the election the gap between the outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) and François Hollande (PS) has tightened even though the latter is still forecast to win the in the second round that will take place on 6th May. A survey published on 1st April last by IFOP assesses the abstention rate at 32% ie a record level in French electoral history. François Hollande is in the lead in terms of voting intentions in the most recent opinion poll, by TNS for the TV channel Itélé and published on 13th April last. He is due to win 28% of the vote ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy with (26%); Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen 16% each, François Bayrou 9% and Eva Joly 2.5%. The other candidates are due to win 1% or less. More than one quarter of those interviewed (27%) say they have not decided. François Hollande is forecast to win in the second round with 56% of the vote against 44% for Nicolas Sarkozy.