The Robert Schuman Foundation, the Yonsei University and the Korea Foundation are organising the first Europe-Korea Forum on 19th September 2012. On this occasion the speakers, both European and Korean will review the relations between the European Union and Korea in various areas one year after the signature of the free trade agreement between the EU and South Korea. It is obligatory to enrol.

On 17th July 2012 the EU and the IMF acknowledged that Portugal was struggling to achieve its budgetary objectives. In their opinion a 4.5% deficit in the GDP in 2012 was still achievable but budgetary threats had increased. These declarations follow the 4th assessment mission on the part of the EU-IMF-ECB troika of the austerity and reform programme that has been introduced in exchange for 78 billion euros granted in May 2011. It ended in a satisfactory conclusion and the payment of a further aid instalment. But the budgetary deficit in the first quarter of 2012 of 7.9% of the GDP is complicating the achievement of a 4.5% deficit by the end of 2012 and 3% in 2013 due to a decrease in fiscal revenues and a rise in unemployment. The EU and the IMF stress that the reforms are being undertaken in a difficult context since Portugal's main partner, Spain is also sorely affected by the crisis.

On 17th July 2012 the European Commission published the second annual report on the use of the European micro-funding tool, Progress. This report reveals the effectiveness of the tool to create jobs, notably with regard to micro-businesses, whose creators struggle to find funding from more traditional sources. 20 micro-funding organisations provide some 170 million euros for a period of two to three years, thereby encouraging for example aid to groups "at risk" such as young people, who cannot meet the criteria for traditional loans. According to László Andor, the Commissioner for Employment this instrument has proved "to be important in terms of social investment, and we should retain it."

On 16th July 2012 the Fisheries and Agriculture ministers in the 27 Member States met to listen to the presentation of the programme of the Cypriot presidency in this area. They also held two debates on agriculture as part of the reform of the CAP: one on the draft regulation for rural development and the other on the common organisation of the agricultural products market. As far as fisheries were concerned the Ministers notably recalled the agreement on the work that needed to be done in terms of cod fishing as well as the agreement on the goal to achieve a maximum sustainable yield by 2015.

The Austrian President Heinz Fischer signed the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) as well as the Europan Budgetary Pact on 17th June 2012, thereby completing his country's ratification of these two texts. Austria is due to participate to a total of 2.8% in the ESM, ie a payment of 2.2 billion euro and 17.3 billion euro in guarantees out of a 500 billion euro capacity in all. With regard to the ratification of the European budgetary pact the Robert Schuman Foundation has updated a summary table of the ratifications in the Union's various countries. It also offers its readers an explanatory paper on the treaty.

German MPs in the Bundestag, who were consulted for the tenth time in two years about saving the euro, approved aid to Spain on 19th July 2012, 473 votes in support, 97 against and 13 abstentions. Germany is due to guarantee nearly 30% of this aid in all. For its part the Finnish Parliament also approved the plan to save the Spanish banks on 20th July, 109 votes in support, 73 against. The agreement on the guarantees that was debated in depth in Finland and finally negotiated with Madrid on 17th July, has now been approved and covers 40% of the Finnish participation.

On 16th July 2012 the Hungarian constitutional Court censured a law that reduced judges', prosecutors' and notaries' retirement age to 62 (in comparison with 70 at present). The Constitutional Court believed that the law might infringe the independence of the judiciary because since it was due to take immediate effect, some judges might be removed from ongoing cases. The EU had criticised this reform and turned to the Luxembourg Court in April 2012 to assess this law as a matter of urgency.

On 17th July 2012 the Irish government announced that it was injecting 2.25 billion euros into its investment programme with the aim of supporting the building industry. The programe's total amount put forward in November 2011 totalled 17 billion euros, staggered over five years, to fund infrastructure projects. The new package should lead to the creation of 13,000 jobs. It will be directed towards building projects in education, healthcare, transport and justice. Depending on the projects work should be completed by 2018 at the latest.

On 19th July 2012 the Italian Chamber of Deputies ratified the European Budgetary Pact, 380 votes in support, 59 against and 36 abstentions; they looked into three laws that had already been approved by the Senate on 12th July. The Robert Schuman Foundation offers an explanatory paper and a summary table on the ratification procedures ongoing in the Member States. Italy is now the eleventh country to ratify the pact, according to this table which deems the ratifications complete when they have been approved by parliament. The TSCG will enter into force when 12 Member States have ratified it.

On 16th July 2012 the Lithuanian Parliament approved the organisation of a referendum on the construction of the nuclear powerplant of Visaginas. 62 MPs voted in support, 39 against and 18 abstained. The plant is due to replace the Ignalina reactor that was stopped in 2009 in line with the commitments taken by the Baltic State when it joined the EU in 2004.

On 18th July 2012 the Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki handed in his resignation to Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The ministry's agency that is responsible for allocating subsidies is suspected of having embezzled funds. The Prime Minister did not however give the name of Mr Sawicki's successor.

The scandal surrounding accusations of plagiarism made against Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta re-emerged on 20th July 2012 with the publication of a damning report by the University of Bucharest. There is question of "massive, deliberate" plagiarism estimated the University's ethics committee, which is the most respected academic establishment in Romania - it awarded the title of doctor to Mr Ponta in 2003. According to the report Mr Ponta, who on several occasions has denied the accusations, "copied the ideas and entire pages" by other authors, ie one third of some 300 pages in his thesis on the functioning of the International Criminal Court.

On 20th July 2012 British Prime Minister David Cameron ended his trip to Afghanistan with a meal with Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip. The two men shared dinner at the cantine of Camp Bastion with British and Estonian troops. The two countries entertain close relations; they are working together at present as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the Helmand province; there are around 165 Estonian soldiers in Afghanistan, mainly in the north of Nad-e-Ali - an area under British leadership and finally the two countries are working closely together in the provincial reconstruction team based in Lashkar Gah.

On 19th July 2012 Albanian MPs adopted (127 votes in support out of 140 MPs present) a new electoral law that aims to put an end to the political quarrels and systematic protests about electoral results. In real terms the new law will focus on the way that the electoral commission is selected, on the introduction of stricter control of voters' ID as well as the introduction of the digital counting of votes which will be tested beforehand in some constituencies. This law is the result of a request made by the EU as part of Albania's process to achieve official candidate status to join the EU.

On 18th July 2012 the Montenegrin Parliament approved 43 votes in support out 58 MPs present the appointment of Nebojsa Kaludjerovic as Foreign and European Integration Minister. The latter succeeds Milan Rocen who resigned some time after the start of the country's entry into the EU. Indeed in his opinion this new stage required the appointment of a new political figure. Nebojsa Kaludjerovic was Montenegro's first ambassador to the UN after his country declared independence in 2006.

On 17th July 2012 the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament ratified Russia's membership protocol to join the World Trade Organisation (144 votes in support and three against). Ten days earlier the Duma, the lower chamber of Parliament, ratified the same protocol. This vote ends 18 years of negotiation. On 21st July Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the protocol. It will enter into force in 30 days time.

On 19th July 2012 journalists demonstrated in Kyiv to denounce the censure that the government is said to be exercising over the independent media just a few months before the general elections. Two media in particular, website Lb.ua and TV channel TVi are being targeted for retaliation measures. Several opposition parties, notably that of Yulia Tymoshenko, accompanied the demonstrators and called on the government to put an end to "pressure" on the media.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on 19th July 2012 for the respect of democratic standards in Romania. It said it was concerned about the methods employed to impeach Presidet Traian Basescu and called for "political forces" to respect the rule of law and democracy. On 16th July, in the wake of pressure made by the EU, the interim President Crin Antonescu, promulgated a law on the referendum relative to the impeachment of Traian Basescu. As advised by the Romanian Constitutional Court the turnout rate must be at least 50% plus one for the impeachment to be declared valid. As a reminder the referendum will take place on 29th July 2012. A poll quoted by the European Election Monitor published by the Robert Schuman Foundation shows that only 27.4% of the electorate will vote against Mr Basescu's destitution in comparison with 64.3% who are about to vote in support of it.

On 19th July 2012 Russia and China rejected a UN resolution which threatened the Syrian regime with sanctions and renewed the mandate of the UN observation mission by 45 days in the country. Of the 15 countries that are members of the Security Council, the resolution put forward by France, the USA, the UK, Germany and Portugal, was approved by 11, rejected by 2 and 2 abstained (Pakistan and South Africa). It is the third time that Russia and China, which are permanent members of the Council, have used their right to veto against a draft resolution on the situation in Syria.

According to figures published by Eurostat on 19th Juy 2012 the EU recorded a deficit of 4.1 billion euros in terms of its current account in the first quarter of 2012. In the first quarter of 2011 the deficit lay at 31.3 billion. The goods account deficit has decreased and the surplus of the services account has increased mainly due to the surpluses in "other services to companies" (trade, professional and technical services; transport, financial and insurance services ...). The EU's current operations account recorded a surplus with the US (20.6 billion euros), Switzerland (17.3 billion euros), Brazil (7.6 billion euros), Hong Kong (6.3 billion euros), Canada (4.9 billion euros) and India (1.3 billion euros).

The Foundation for International Relations and External Dialogue (FRIDE) has published a study on relations between the former Soviet Republics of Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova Ukraine) and Central Asia. This area remains strategic for the energy and economic interests of these three European powers.

Can European integration enable the Union's Member States to recover the joint influence they have lost in the face of new world powers? In a paper by "La Documentation française" entitled "L'Union Européenne peut-elle devenir une grande puissance?" author Maxime Lefebvre explains that the European Union has progressively invested all areas of power, from the economy and trade to foreign policy and even defence by using new levers of influence (regulation, negotiation, aid, crisis management tools). However in his opinion the European Union still faces several challenges if it wants to defend its place in the international arena.

The Salzburg festival is putting on an extremely rich programme of operas, concerts and theatre plays until 2nd September 2012. "Die Zauberflöte" by Mozart, Puccini's "Bohemian" and "Carmen" by Bizet will notably be played all summer long.