As part of the partnership between the Robert Schuman Foundation and the Audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF), the Foundation is broadcasting its latest programme "Talking Europe" on its site whose guest this week is Didier Reynders, the Belgian Foreign Minister. He is interviewed by the Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation Jean-Dominique Giuliani on the conclusions of the European Council on 7th and 8th February and notably on the austerity budget adopted on 8th February.

On 7th January last Maltese President George Abela dissolved parliament and convened general elections for 9th March after the collapse of Lawrence Gonzi's government in the wake of parliament's rejection of the budget on 11th December. The Chamber of Representatives comprises 65 MPs, elected for five years according to a proportional multi-member voting system, otherwise known as the single transferable vote. Both political parties are represented: the Nationalist Party (PN), led by Lawrence Gonzi, has 35 seats; the Labour Party led by Joseph Muscat has 34 seats. The most recent polls forecast that the Labour Party will win on 9th March next with 49% of the vote, 47% of the vote is due to go to the Nationalist Party and 4% to Democratic Alternative (DA), an ecologist party led by Michael Briguglio.

On 7th February 2013 the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) "started discussions over the way to prepare and support a successful, sustainable end to the aid plan" of 85 billion euros granted to Ireland at the end of 2010. The troika lauded Ireland's economic performance, the only one of the three euro zone countries under financial assistance to have recovered growth; there is a plan to release further aid tranches. However the troika is still concerned about the "high unemployment" rate which is affecting 15% of the working population and added that "decisive action" still has to be implemented to guarantee that the banks can support recovery.

On 8th February the 27 European Union Heads of State and government came to an agreement on the draft European budget covering the period 2014-2020. The budget, which has been reduced for the first time ever, will total 960 billion euros in commitment appropriations and 908.4 billion in payment appropriations. Immediately after the announcement of this agreement the heads of the four main political groups in the European Parliament - Joseph Daul (EPP), Hannes Swoboda (S&D), Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE), Rebecca Harms and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/ALE) announced that they rejected the European multi-annual budget "as it stood" because in their opinion, it would not "strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy". In another press release the chairman of the European Parliament's Budgets Committee, Alain Lamassoure (EPP), indicated that this budget deprived the EU of "any room to manoeuvre for the next seven years". Without the MEPs' agreement it will be impossible to implement the budget.

On 5th February 2013 the French President François Hollande spoke for the first time to the European Parliament. He set growth, employment, solidarity and the deepening of Economic and Monetary Union as a priority. He notably maintained that "savings had to be made" in the European budget, but without weakening it, pleading for a reasonable compromise. He also said that national interest was "taking the lead over that of Europe". Finally he said that "it was legitimate to work towards a new structure for the Union," with a differentiated Europe in which "States decided to move forwards, commit to new projects, to find funds" as part of enhanced cooperation agreements.

On 7th February 2013 the European Commission published a strategy that aims to strengthen cybersecurity. It aims to promote European values such as freedom, democracy and to ensure that the digital economy can develop in total safety. The overall strategy notably anticipates the development of industrial and technological resources in cybersecurity and the improvement of cyberdefence means together with a common defence and security policy. A vital chapter in the plan is a draft directive that will oblige the States to adopt a security strategy for information networks and to appoint competent national authorities, that have adequate financial and human resources to manage risks.

On 6th February 2013 the 27 EU European Affairs Ministers debated the work programme of the Irish Presidency and the draft agenda of the European Council on 14th and 15th March. Moreover they adopted a decision on a readmission agreement for illegal immigrants with Cap-Verde. They also approved the Commission's decision to withdraw Iran and Azerbaijan from the list of beneficiaries of the EU's generalised scheme of tariff preferences. They also approved the modification of the Veterinary Agreement with Switzerland.

On 6th February 2013 the Serb President, Tomislav Nikolic and his Kosovar counterpart Atifete Jahjaga met in Brussels thanks to mediation by Catherine Ashton the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and the Security Policy. It is a first since their respective elections. "Both said they supported dialogue," declared Ms Ashton in a press release. Before his departure for Brussels Tomislav Nikolic recalled that the journey did not imply any kind of acknowledgement of the independence of Kosovo.

The President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Mario Draghi declared on 7th February 2013 that the rise in the euro is the sign of the return of confidence in the euro zone. This "appreciation is a sign of the return of confidence in the euro (...) The exchange rates must reflect the fundamentals and as a whole the nominal and real exchange rates are almost within their long term average," he added. He recalled that "the exchange rate was not a goal" but that it "was important for growth and price stability". He added that the ECB would watch this appreciation which if it continued would modify the institution's assessment as far as price stability is concerned. Moreover interest rates on the main refinancing operations will remain unchanged (0.75%, 1.50% and 0%).

On 7th February 2013 the Ariane 5 rocket carrying two telecommunications satellites for Spain and Azerbaijan was launched from the space centre in Kourou (Guiana). This first lift-off of the year of the European launcher is the 212th Ariane launch from the Guianese Space Centre and the 68th launch of an Ariane 5 rocket. According to the CEO of Arianespace Jean-Yves le Gall "this performance again shows the pertinence of our development policy; it enables us to increase the capacity of our launcher and also maintain its reliability."

The German and Spanish governments met on 4th February 2013 in Berlin as part of their annual bilateral consultations. On the sidelines of these discussions German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the close nature of the cooperation with Spain. She added that Germany held the reforms that Spain had started in great esteem. The Spanish head of government, Mariano Rajoy stressed that these reforms were already starting to produce results and that he intended to continue along this path. He recalled that Germany is Spain's second most important economic partner.

The Bulgarian Parliament appointed a new Education, Youth and Science Minister on 6th February 2013 after the dismissal, last week of the previous holder of the position who is suspected of corruption. The Chairman of the Science Academy, Stefan Vodenitcharov, director of the Metals Institute succeeds Serguey Ignatov who was sacked after irregularities in the management of public research funds were discovered.

As he recently promised the Spanish head of government, Mariano Rajoy, who has been accused of involvement in a corruption scandal but who denies having received undeclared money, has published his tax returns from 2004-2011 and the list of his assets up to 2007 on 9th February 2013. These dates correspond to the period in which he led the People's Party. The Spanish Prime Minister received between 112,015 and 147,620 euros annually in salary as well as "additional revenues, produced by his assets invested in public debt and real estate." Mariano Rajoy hopes to put an end to the scandal in this way.

On 7th February 2013 Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced that he had come to an "historic" agreement over the country's debt. Irish MPs approved the liquidation of the Anglo-Irish bank on the same day 113 votes in support, 36 against - the latter was nationalised in 2009 after its spectacular collapse during the financial crisis in the wake of risky real estate loans. The bank's assets will be transferred to NAMA, a "bad" bank created by Dublin during the financial crisis to relieve the country's banks of their toxic assets.

On 7th February 2013 Canadian Mark Carney spoke before the Treasury Committee in the House of Commons for the post of governor of the Bank of England. Presently the governor of the Bank of Canada, Mr Carney was asked specific questions about monetary policy and the country's financial stablility. Although many think that Mark Carney might revolutionise English monetary policy he appeared to be more compliant than expected, seeming in the main to want to continue the same policy as his predecessor Mervyn King. After this audience the Treasury Committee confirmed the appointment of Mark Carney as governor of the Bank of England.

On 6th February 2013 Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec and his Croatian counterpart Vesna Pusic came to an agreement on the settlement of a dispute over the Ljubljanska Banka. When Yugoslavia collapsed at the beginning of the 1990's this Slovenian bank went bankrupt whilst more than 130,000 Croats held an account there. The compromise - the details of which will not be revealed before 19th February next - should put an end to Slovenia's refusal to ratify Croatia's accession treaty to the European Union.

On 11th February 2013 during an ordinary public consistory Pope Benedict XVI announced that he was retiring on 28th February declaring that he no longer had the "strength" to lead the Catholic Church because of his age. Benedict XVI, aged 85, said that he "had realised, due to his advanced age, he was no longer able to assume his position as Pope and Archbishop of Rome adequately.

In his inaugural speech to the conference on the freedom of speech and the freedom of the media in Turkey on 5th February 2013 the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland stressed the need to take steps to bring Turkish legislation in line with the Council of Europe's standards. "There are 450 cases pending against Turkey involving the issue of the freedom of speech. This is far too many" he declared, recalling the European Court of Human Rights' most recent statistics as he spoke to an audience of Turkish prosecutors and magistrates. "The entire anti-terrorist legislation has to be reviewed and the Penal Code modified," he added. "Even if this shocks or upsets, protecting the freedom of the press and speech means protecting democracy," he believed.

According to a survey published by Eurobarometer on 5th February 2013 three Europeans in five think that chemical substances on the EU's market are safer now that they were 10 years ago. Five years after the entry into force of the regulation on the registration, assessment, authorisation and restriction of chemical products (REACH), 65% of those interviewed believed that products containing chemical substances had been correctly tested in the European Union.

The Foundation for International Relations and External Dialogue (FRIDE) has published a study on trade relations between the European Union and Asia: "EU-Asia trade: in need of a strategy." The author explains that the two regions must define priorities and means of action in terms of trade otherwise they might soon be supplanted by Asian intra-regional trade.

Codex publishing have released a book by Sophie Vilks Battaia, PhD in Modern History and a specialist of international relations, entitled "A contested independence, Latvia and the powers of Europe between the two wars (1917-1939)." This unique study based on Latvian and French diplomatic archives (Society of Nations funds), describes the history of this Baltic State which took advantage of the Bolchevic Revolution and the allied victory in 1918 to free itself from the Russian empire. After eight centuries of domination Latvia acquired independence on 18th November 1918.

The Beyeler Foundation of Basel is devoting an exhibition to the work of Ferdinand Hodler until 26th May 2013 highlighting the last five years of his work (1913-1918). Ferdinand Hodler whose work marked the external and internal image of Switzerland like no other, was one of the main representatives of the transition between the 19th century and the modern era. The exhibition brings together around 80 works and was completed with the help of the Neue Galerie in New York.