Jean-Dominique Giuliani, Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation has published an editorial on his site entitled "France has to speak out". At a time when many European political leaders like Angela Merkel, Mariano Rajoy, Mario Monti and others have already given their vision of the future of the EU, France, which is still in an electoral campaign, remains silent and he invites its leaders to say what their vision is and to take a stance. He advises them to focus "exclusively on one goal, and that is recovering confidence, stability and growth" avoiding all partisan divisions and achieve "temporary national union" "on a realistic but ambitious vision of a truly integrated European Economic Union."

The Greeks are being called to ballot on 17th June to renew the 300 members of the Vouli, the lower chamber of Parliament, because the election on 6th May did not lead to the formation of a majority government coalition. Will it be different after this election? Everyone is watching Greece. Will it stay or leave the euro zone? According to the most recent polls the battle is a bitter one between SYRIZA (radical left) and New Democracy (centre-right) which, according to the polls, are ahead in the voting intentions. Nothing is certain though and all analysts agree to say that the competition between these two parties will be a tightly run one.

According to the official data published on 6th June by the National Statistics Office Slovakia's GDP increased by 4.4% between the first quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. Compared with the last quarter of 2011 the GDP increased by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2012.

In a press release on 6th June the European Commission said that it wanted to make banking union a reality. In a context of crisis, the Commission is convinced that a long term perspective has to be adopted via greater economic integration, which would mean significant value added to our monetary Union. The main ideas are to make safe capitalisation, facilitate the restructuring of the banking sector, to strenghten the security of bank deposits and govern State subsidies. Banking Union will be the focus of a report by the President of the European Council, the Commission, Eurogroup and the European Central Bank on 28th and 29th June next.

On 7th and 8th June the 27 Justice and Home Affairs Ministers agreed on two draft proposals concerning the Schengen area: common rules on the temporary reintroduction of border controls, and common rules to check on the application of the acquis. They also addressed the issue of solidarity between States to face possible pressure that results from migratory flows, mentioning in particular the situation in Greece. They adopted various regulations over succession rights in Europe to facilitate these matters especially when they are cross-border, or on the more effective use of the Europol system in the fight to counter crime. They finally looked into the 10th annual Eurojust report 2011.

On 6th June during the 8th Stabilisation and Association Council between the European Union and Croatia, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and the Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Füle announced that this might be last meeting before Croatia's accession. In spite of the progress observed, Stefan Füle did however recall that Croatia still had to implement all of the measures pinpointed in the most recent report dated 24th Apri regarding reform efforts, in particular in key areas such as competition policy, judiciary and fundamental rights as well as justice, freedom and security, and in pursuing further economic reforms. Stefan Füle encouraged Croatia to keep up its work to set in place a real civil service. Finally the Stabilisation and Association Council invited Croatia to focus more particularly on the right to establishment, on the freedom to provide services, agricultural and rural development, food safety, regional policy and the coordination of structural instruments as well as on climate change.

Just as the situation in Spain is becoming increasingly critical German Chancellor Angela Merkel revived debate over a several speed Europe in a TV interview given to the German public channel ARD on 7th June. To emerge from the crisis she is requesting a stronger Europe that has to be achieved at different speeds. The Robert Schuman Foundation has published a special Letter in which it offers readers all of the analyses it has published on these two questions.

On 8th June the Bank of France reviewed its growth forecasts for the second quarter of 2012 downwards. It is now expecting a contraction of 0.1% of the GDP instead of stagnation at 0% that had initially been forecast. Its forecasts are based on its monthly survey of industry and services whose activity was down in May 2012. If the forecast proves true it will be the first month of contraction in France since the end of the country's recession in 2009. However "forecasts reveal an improvement in activity short term," in industry and a "tightening up" in the services sector.

The Director General of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, paid tribute on 5th June to the austerity policy implemented in Latvia, qualified as a model for the countries of the EU that are under threat of the debt crisis. In just one year the country has achieved a budgetary adjustment of 8% of the GDP thanks to austerity measures that were introduced together with an IMF rescue plan. According to IMF estimates economic growth is due to rise to 3.5% in 2012. On 5th June during his meeting with Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis also re-iterated his country's desire to adopt the single currency in 2014.

On 5th June the EU announced that it was extending its EULEX, police and justice mission in Kosovo by two years and that it was allocating a budget of 111 million euros for the extension of this short mission until 14th June 2014. "I am pleased that the biggest civilian mission launched by the EU will be extended by an additional period of two years. Eulex Kosovo, whose mandate it is to help policemen, judges and customs officers accomplish some remarkable work," maintained the EU's head of diplomacy, Catherine Ashton. The mission's main goal is to help and support the Kosovo authorities in areas linked to the rule of law, particularly the police, justice and customs officers.

On 6th June the newspaper "The Ukrainian Week" published an interview with the Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Jean-Dominique Giuliani. On this occasion he reviewed the positions adopted by the Foundation since the beginning of Yulia Tymoshenko's hunger strike: the call for the boycott of the Euro 2012 and the request for Member States to refuse entry of leading Ukrainian politicians into Europe. In his opinion the imprisonment of former government members comprises political manipulation that the Union cannot condone. However, since he is greatly attached to this country, he deplores the fact that there is no rule of law and that Human Rights are being infringed, issues that the entire EU is particularly sensitive to.

The euro zone recorded zero growth in the first quarter of 2012 after a decline in its GDP of 0.3% in the previous quarter and thereby avoided recession said the EU's statistics office, Eurostat on 6th June. Amongst the components of the GDP household consumption remained stable (after a decrease of 0.5% in the fourth quarter 2011), exports increased by 1% and imports by 0.1%. However investment (gross fixed capital formation) declined by 1.4% in the euro zone.

On 8th June the European Commission published two Eurobarometer studies. The first observes an increase in humanitarian aid in Europe in spite of the economic crisis. Out of around 30,000 respondents across the entire EU it reveals that 88% of them believe it important for the EU to provide financial aid in this area and 84% believe that this aid has to continue in spite of the crisis. The second shows that 75% of European citizens interviewed support coordinated action on the part of the EU in the face of disasters caused by Man and 84% of them even believe that the Member States should be legally obliged to establish disaster prevention management plans.

In a report presented on 6th June entitled "Money, power and politics: corruption risks in Europe", the NGO Transparency International analyses the state of play in terms of the fight to counter corruption in 25 European states and draws up a mitigated picture. Hence 75% of parliaments do no have effective mechanisms to counter their members' corruption. Moreover results vary from country to country. Scandinavian Europe and the north have the best guarantees, whilst Bulgaria and Romania trail at the end of the ranking.

The Prado Museum in Madrid is showing more than 70 works (40 paintings and 30 drawings) by the Italian artist Raffaello Sanzio, otherwise known as Raphaël, from 12th June to 16th September. The exhibition focuses on the artist's work in the last years of his life, from the start of the pontificate of Leo X in 1513 until the painter's death in 1520. Visitors can notably admire the altar painting of Saint Cecilia or the portrait of Baldassare Castiglione. Work by Raphaël's main assistants, Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni who worked with Raphaël towards the end of the master's life are also on show.