On 3rd May 2013 the Chamber of Trade and Industry of Meurthe and Moselle is organising the first economic forum "Economic Ideas Forum" in Nancy with two prestigious guests in attendance: Philippe Maystadt, former EIB president and former Belgian Prime Minister, together with Gerhard Schröder, former German Chancellor. Six workshops on the theme of "Future Success" will cover the day's events. Pascale Joannin, the Robert Schuman Foundation's General Manager will moderate the workshop "Truth, transparency and governance". It is obligatory to enrol.

The French Socialist Party attacked Germany in a text on 25th April that is due to be presented at its convention on Europe. In unpleasant and barely respectful terms about its German partner, deemed responsible for "austerity", it calls for "another policy". French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had to modify the unedited version of the text, criticised by two former Prime Ministers, François Fillon and Alain Juppé. We should recall the premonitory editorial by the Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Jean-Dominique Giuliani published on 19th April on the front page of "Ouest France".

On 25th April 2013 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the British growth rate rose to 0.3% in the first quarter of 2013, a figure which is better than previously forecast. This growth comes after a GDP contraction of 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2012, thereby enabling the country to avoid official recession. "These figures represent a sign of encouragement showing that the economy is healing. We are making progress in spite of difficult economic conditions," said Finance Minister George Osborne, whose austerity policy is under increasing criticism.

On 25th April 2013 the German Economy Minister Philipp Rösler presented the German government's spring economic forecasts. The government foresees a slight increase in the GDP for 2013, at 0.5% instead of a previous estimate of 0.4%. In 2014 the forecast lies at 1.6% according to the minister who says he is "optimistic about the future" of Europe's leading economy. "The economy is recovering, unemployment is declining," he added. The German government's forecasts are not as brave as those made by the main German economic research institutes (who are planning on a GDP rise of 0.8%) and the IMF (forecast at 0.6% last week).

On 25th April 2013 the Spanish National Statistics Institute published its figures for the first quarter of 2013. According to this unemployment has reached a new record high of 27.1% with 6,202,700 jobless. The number of unemployed rose sharply between January and March 2013, whilst the unemployment rate totalled 26.02% in December 2012. According to the Bank of Spain the pace of the contraction of the Spanish economy slowed slightly in the first quarter 2013 with the country's GDP declining by 0.5% over this period after a 0.8% contraction in the previous quarter. In its economic bulletin published on 24th April the Central Bank advises the Spanish government to step up structural reform to revive growth, whilst the fourth euro zone economy has been fighting with recession since the end of 2011.

"Portugal has respected the deficit limit defined in the Economic and Financial Adjustment Programme for the first quarter of 2013," indicated the Portuguese Finance Minister in a press release on 23rd April 2013, quoting the General Department for the Treasury. The civil service deficit totals 1,358 billion euros, ie 542 billion less than the goal set out by the country's creditors for this period. This development can notably be explained by a widespread increase in income tax, that corresponds to an average rise of 5.2% in public revenues in comparison with last year.

On 25th April 2013 the Cypriot Finance Minister announced that restrictions on the movement of money that had been set to prevent a loss of capital before the introduction of the troika's bail out plan (ECB, IMF, EU) were to be relaxed. According to the new decision private parties will be able to make transfers on the island to a total of 10,000 euros per month, whilst the cap placed on companies is set at 50,000 euros. As far foreign transactions are concerned private parties will be allowed to transfer upto 5000 euros. As for people travelling abroad they will be able to take up to 3000 euros with them, or the equivalent in foreign currency. However it is still impossible to withdraw more than 300 euros per day.

According to figures published on 22nd April 2013 by the Central Statistics Office, Ireland reduced its public deficit down to 7.6% of the GDP in 2012 against 13.4% in 2011. However the public debt has risen totalling 117.6% of the GDP in 2012 against 106.4% in 2011. On the same day the European Commission completed its ninth examination of Ireland's situation and announced that Dublin has respected its commitments. Hence it released a further tranche of aid of 1.6 billion euros.

The Greek Parliament adopted the law on further austerity measures demanded by the troika on 28th April 2013, 168 votes in favour, 123 against. This bill should enable the payment of further tranches of aid of 8.8 billion euros. It notably plans the restructuring of the public sector and the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants by 2014 including 4,000 this year. Sanctioned for corruption and incompetence, those close to retirement or simply victims of the destruction of their jobs, those leaving are to be replaced by new civil servants who have been recruited according to merit. Payment facilities are also planned to enable the State to recover billions of euros in tax debts and social contributions from households that have fallen into debt because of recession and austerity.

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso announced on 25th April 2013 that Croat, Neven Mimica, at present European Integration Minister, might become the 28th member of the Commissioners' College after his country joins the EU on 1st July 2013. He would be responsible for consumer protection, a portfolio that is part of healthcare at present and managed by Maltese Commissioner Tonio Borg. The European Parliament still has to audition the candidate.

On 23rd April 2013 the European Commission revealed its platform for good tax governance notably designed to counter tax fraud and evasion. This platform will follow the progress achieved by the Member States in their fight against tax havens on the one hand and to counter aggressive tax planning on the other. Algirdas Semeta, the Commissioner responsible for Taxation, Customs, Statistics, Audit and Anti-Fraud declared, "when we are fighting tax fraud we are defending the equity of our tax systems, the competitiveness of our economies and solidarity between Member States."

On 26th April 2013 the European Commission presented further measures in view of facilitating the free movement of workers within the EU. These measures are based on an observation: employers know little about the legal measures in this area which leads to nationality based discrimination. The measures put forward by the Commission which still has to be approved by Parliament and the Council should foster greater mobility by workers by way of improved information. 3% of European citizens live and work in a Member State other than their own.

On 24th April 2013 the European Commission published a greenpaper on the multi-media in order to define a strategy for convergence in the audiovisual sector. Various paths structure its approach: the norms to implement to improve the single market; the measures to take to guarantee pluralism in the media; the rules to respect notably in terms of international trade, funding, and even the synthesis between European values and users' interests. The public consultation is open until the end of August 2013.

On 23rd April 2013 the 27 Foreign Ministers discussed the present situation in Africa, the Near and Middle East, North Korea as well as Myanmar. As far as Syria is concerned they agreed to relax the embargo on oil in order to relieve the civilian population and to support the opposition. The 27 Defence Ministers looked into the threats set to security in Mali and more widely to the Sahel as a region. They reviewed the progress of EU military operations particularly its training mission. They also continued preparations in view of the European Council that will take place in December 2013, notably regarding battle groups and the defence industry.

On 22nd April 2013 the 27 Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers debated the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is under negotiation with the Parliament and the Commission and also the transitory measures planned by the Commission for 2014. During this meeting, the Irish Presidency informed the ministers of the progress made by the trilogues over the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. They looked into the protocols relative to agreements on fishing with Morocco and Mauritania. Finally they decided on a temporary derogation to the directive establishing an CO2 emissions exchange quota, in view of the drafting of a global market mechanism to reduce CO2 emissions in the aviation sector.

On 25th April 2013 Slovenian President Borut Pahor travelled to Berlin where he met his German counterpart Joachim Gauck as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The focus of discussion was mainly issues related to European policy and those associated with the stabilisation of the euro zone, as well as the economic situation in Slovenia and its region, along with the means that might enable the euro zone to overcome the financial crisis that it is suffering.

On 26th April 2013 the Spanish government presented the major outline of its stability programme together with a structural reform plan. The country's most recent economic forecasts were also revealed on this occasion. The government is forecasting a GDP contraction of 1.3% in 2013, growth of 0.5% in 2014 and unemployment of 26.7% in 2014, before it drops to 25% in 2015. Spain has raised its deficit goal to 6.3% of the GDP in 2013 and does not plan for this to drop below the 3% threshold before 2016, ie two years later than planned. The European Commission accepted this two year delay for Spain and now has to look at the plans mentioned in both programmes to see how these are adapted to the country's social and economic situation.

France will continue to invest heavily in defence with 364 billion euros in credit lines devoted to it between 2014 and 2025 including 179.2 billion between 2014 and 2019 according to the whitepaper delivered on 29th April 2013 to the French head of State. Defence spending is due to stabilise in terms of its value (excluding inflation) at around 31.4 billion euros per year, before progressively rising. President François Hollande has promised the "best" training, equipment and information for the armies. Without mentioning any further job losses (24,000 by 2019) the head of State said that he had "arbitrated to reconcile three imperatives": guaranteeing the "defence and security of our country with a high profile for the next four years," "to enable industry to anticipate order volumes and also its research efforts," and the "need to reconcile the balance of our public accounts (...) with the independence of our decisions."

On 23rd April the "Revue permanente des professionnels de l'Europe" published a study by Sylvain Schirmann, Director of Sciences Po at the University of Strasbourg entitled "Franco-German political couples and European integration". Fifty years after the signature of the Elysée Treaty the author reviews the driving force of the leading Franco-German couples that have marked the relationship between the two countries since the mid-1920's until the start of the 90's. From Briand-Stresemann to Mitterrand-Kohl, not forgetting Schuman-Adenauer, this article highlights the imbalances, the inequalities and the crises experienced by these couples.

On 26th April 2013 the IMF published a new study entitled "Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe - Regional Economic Issues" which includes various analytical documents that aim to enrich economic debate in the region. This report focuses in particular on the role played by banking systems in the funding of future growth in European regions.

On 25th April 2013 the European Commission published its report for 2012 on European financial stability and integration. In spite of improvements, European growth is still impeded by difficulties in the financial sector. This report insists notably on the need for the banking sector to support the real economy by supporting growth and employment particularly by absorbing difficulties experienced by SME's in their access to financing. Michel Barnier, the commissioner for the Single Market said that "political measures analysed in this report comprise our best tools to emerge from the crisis."

Normandy, the cradle of Impressionism, is hosting the second edition of the "Normandie Impressionniste" festival until 29th September 2013. Several hundred events - including three exhibitions in Rouen, Caen and the Havre have been planned. In Rouen the exhibition "Dazzling Reflections" at Fine Arts Museum is showing around one hundred major Impressionist canvasses. The Fine Arts Museum in Caen is hosting "Summer at the Water's Edge", an exhibition that bears witness to the emergence of leisure activities in the 19th century. Finally the Havre is showing "Pissarro and the Ports", giving a precise view of the theme of the industrial and maritime port, that re-occurs in the painter's work, by way of 74 canvasses, 49 photographs and albums.

The works from the "Pinacothèque Moderne" will be on show until 31st August 2013 in the halls of the "Neue Pinakothek" in Munich. The exhibition "Blickwechsel" (Change of View) gives the public an opportunity to view works from the 19th alongside major works of the 20th century. Visitors will be able to (re)discover the works of Paul Klee, C.D. Friedrich, Max Ernst and Arnold Böcklin, August Macke and Claude Monet and also Emil Nolde, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.

After around ten years of work the Mariinsky II theatre will officially open its doors to the public on 2nd May 2013. This event will start with an inaugural gala including the biggest voices in opera today (Anna Netrebko, Olga Borodina, Evgeny Nikitin, Plácido Domingo). The launch will coincide with the 60th birthday of Valery Gergiev and his 25th anniversary as the theatre's artistic director. The building, comprising 79,114 m2 will one of the biggest places for the production and presentation of opera in the world.

On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the writing of the "Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, the Vittoriano Museum of Rome is putting on an exhibition "The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli through time. 1513-2013" until 16th June 2013. This exhibition reviews the history and success of "The Prince" throughout the centuries - it is deemed to be the first treaty of modern politics and inspired a great number of European politicians and thinkers. The exhibition is organised around major works of art, unique manuscripts and ancient objects on loan from various private and public collections, like the Archives of Florence and the Vatican Museum.

Manet's Olympia will be on show for the first time with its model "The Urbino Venus" by Titien in an exhibition at the Doge's Palace in Venice. The exhibition "Manet. Return to Venice" is open until 18th August 2013 in the Doge's apartment and is being organised by the Museums' Foundation of the City of Venice and the Orsay Museum that is presenting 23 of Manet's paintings including "Olympia" (1863) as well as around 20 drawings.

A museum devoted to painter Mark Rothko opened its doors on 24th April 2013 in Daugavpils, the artist's native town, one hundred years after his emigration to the USA. "It is a marvellous return to his origins for my father," indicated the artist's son, Christopher Rothko. "But it is also very exciting because it is a living centre of art that will promote art in the region," he added.

Several dozen paintings by the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, including the "Sunflowers" series and the "Bedroom" have made their comeback at the museum bearing the artist's name, in view of its re-opening after months of renovation, "these masterpieces and others will be on show again as part of the exhibition "Van Gogh at Work" which will herald the re-opening of the museum on May 1st 2013".