The General Council of Moselle is organising the third round of study days on 15th and 16th November at Scy-Chazelles on the theme of "Europe via the economy? From the initial projects to the present debates". The various debates will lead to thought about historic legacy and highlight the present debates on the economic dimension of European integration.

Former Prime Minister (2008-2011) Borut Pahor (SD) caused a surprise in the first round of the Presidential election on 11th November in Slovenia. He won the election with 40% of the vote and now lies ahead of outgoing Head of State Danilo Türk, who won 35.83%. Milan Zver came third with 24.16%. Turnout totalled 47.68% ie 10 points less in comparison with the first round of voting in the presidential election on 21st October 2007. Danilo Türk and Borut Pahor will face each other in the second round on 2nd December next. For the first time ever in a presidential election voters will be choosing between two leftwing candidates.

On 8th November 2012 the Greek National Statistics Office, Elstat published its revised data on the working population in Greece for August 2012. According to these figures the unemployment rate lay at 25.4% instead of 18.4% in August 2011 and 24.8% in July 2012. The number of people out of work increased by 38.4% in comparison with August 2011 and 1.9% in comparison with July 2012.

On 7th November 2012 the European Commission indicated that economic conditions were still "weak" this autumn in the EU. The GDP is due to contract by 0.3 points across the entire Union in 2012, and by 0.4 points in the euro zone. The Commission does hope however that there will be a return to growth in 2013, with 0.4% and 0.1% for the EU and the euro zone respectively. This trend is due to consolidate in 2014. The Commission said that budgetary consolidation was starting to produce results since this had led to an overall reduction in deficits amongst the Member States and a reduction in their stock of sovereign debts.

On 7th November 2012, German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented her view of a revived Europe to MEPs. In her opinion the EU must find the courage to reform and integrate further. She called upon European leaders to agree during the next European summit in December on real, ambitious measures for greater budgetary and economic integration of the euro zone. She suggested a harmonsed regulation of the financial markets and political mechanisms to guarantee the democratic legitimacy of the decisions taken. She also asked for European institutions to be given the right to intervene in the States' budget when the rules set in this regard by Brussels were infringed.

On 5th and 6th November during the 9th EU/Asia Summit European leaders tried to reassure their Asian counterparts about the situation in the euro zone and the debt crisis in Europe. With average growth at around 7% Asian growth offers new, unavoidable markets to the EU, which might support its growth in the future. The European delegation insisted on recalling the rules of international trade that have been set in place to avoid all kinds of protectionism and closure of the Asia markets to Europeans. Free-exchange agreements are under negotiation at present with Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, India and soon Japan.

The EU Court of Justice condemned Hungary over reducing judges' retirement age from 70 to 62 on 6th November 2012. "The Court concludes that the radical reduction of 8 years in the retirement age of the professions involved is not a necessary measure to achieve the goal of harmonising the retirement age in the public services," it said in a press release. It believes that this is unjustified "discrimination" based on age.

On 7th November 2012 the Serb and Kosovar Prime Ministers Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaçi met in Brussels with the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and the Security Policy, Catherine Ashton. The aim of the meeting was to extend discussions over the measures designed to foster the normalisation of relations between the two countries and to improve living conditions of Albanian Kosovars and of the Serb minority in Kosovo. A further meeting is planned soon.

The European Court of Auditors delivered a report on 6th November 2012 on the implementation of the European budget 2011. It concluded that overall accounts stayed in line with estimated income and commitment payments. However the Court notes a 3.9% error regarding payments made to the entire Union budget -which is a comparable level with 2010. For the court certain payments were not used as best they might and sometimes failed to reach their key destinations. Moreover the Commission and Member States' supervisory systems are only partly effective. The Court is therefore asking for a simplification in the payment channels in order to facilitate their supervision.

According to their annual report delivered to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on 7th November 2012, the five experts - high ranking economists who advise the German governmet - are expecting unemployment to be at its lowest ever rate this year since reunification in 1990 (6.8%) and growth to lie at 0.8% in 2012 and 2013 (instead of a previous forecast of 0.9% by the IMF and 1% according to the German government). The five experts do however acknowledge the first "successes" in the bid to break the vicious circle of the public debt crisis. Firstly, "budgetary imbalances have been significantly reduced" and the adoption of the fiscal pact as well as the growth pact, that have already been decided upon by the Member States, provide the start of "a regulatory framework which is working" for the euro zone.

Mireille Ballestrazzi, Deputy Central Director of the French Judicial Police was elected President of Interpol on 8th November 2012 in Rome thereby becoming the first woman ever to chair this international police cooperation organisation.

On 7th November 2012 the Greek Parliament adopted a framework law on "the public finance strategy 2013-2016" planning to make savings of 18 billion euros by 2016. 153 of the 299 MPs (out of a total of 300) voted in support of this text demanded by the country's international creditors, the EU, the ECB and the IMF, in order for them to resume their financial support to the country. "We have taken a decisive step towards recovery," declared Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

The Constitutional Court of Lithuania confirmed the results of the general elections that took place on 14th and 28th October last thereby opening the way to the formation of a government coalition. The Court did however say that several candidates from the Labour Party, a centre-left populist party, should not sit in Parliament due to accusations of voting purchasing that have been brought against them. They should be replaced by other candidates who feature on the same lists. It concluded that there had been fraud in the vote counting in only one constituency, which would make a further vote necessary in six months time. On 6th November 2012 the Social Democratic Party signed an agreement with the Labour Party and the small Order and Justice Party to form a coalition that is due to be reviewed given the Court's decision.

On 7th November 2012 German Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to London for a working dinner with the British Prime Minister David Cameron. The two leaders tried to overcome their differences in opinion over the budgetary outlook 2014-2020. The Prime Minister intends to achieve a "freezing" of the budget. Angela Merkel stressed in Brussels on the same day that she wanted a "stronger UK in the EU".

In Sweden "men are paid more for their work than women, who spend more time on housework" said the Swedish statistics office in a report published on 6th November 2012. Graphs show that there are significant differences at the start of professional life, totalling 37% amongst the 20-24 year olds, even though "women are more qualified than men". This report stresses moreover that a major factor for equality between the sexes could be the possibility of combining parenthood with work. The differences are greater still - indeed women take more parental leave (76% in 2011). The Robert Schuman Foundation has published a comparative table, that is regularly updated regarding the place of women in Europe.

On 9th November 2012 the President of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic announced that he had appointd the DPS leader, Milo Djukanovic as Prime Minister. His coalition won the general elections on 14th October.

The Council of Notariats of the European Union is launching an internet site "Couples in Europe" which will be devoted to the law governing couples in the 27 EU countries. This unique site is available in the EU's 21 official languages and aims to "respond better to the requirements of legal security of couples in Europe, the shape of which is developing rapidly," stresses the President of the Council, Tilman Götte. The EU has 16 million binational couples.

On 6th November 2012 the European Commission published a regional results table on innovation 2012. The latter presents a comparative analysis of 190 EU regions. It ranks the regions into four groups: 41 are in the 1st group of "innovation leaders", 58 regions are in the second group of "followers", 49 regions are "moderate innovators" and 52 are "modest innovators". According to this report innovation results vary more regionally than nationally. The countries in which this trend is the greatest are France and Portugal. The most innovative regions are "typically" found in the most innovative countries: Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland.

François Bourin Publishing has released the first biography of Europe's last dictator Aleksander Lukashenko as part of its "Black Sheep" Series. Using things that Lukashenko has himself said, author Valery Karbalevych attempts to explain how Belarus managed to slip into dicatatorship just three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and how the manager of a farming enterprise, without the support of any party or social structure, succeeded in rising to the top of the State. This is the only biography available in French of the "Europe's last tyrant".

The National Library of France is hosting an exhibition entitled "The Golden Age of Maritime Maps, when Europe discovered the World" until 27th January 2013. Around 200 pieces of work are on display: works of art and ethnographical objects, maps, globes and instruments used in astronomy. Amongst the main elements on show are "the portulan charts", which are illuminated sea maps on parchment that often have gold reliefs showing a series of ports along the coasts. The exhibition addresses various themes amongst which are the discoveries of Africa, Asia and the Americas, iconographical developments and issues of rivalry between the major maritime powers.