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. The guest this week is former European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino. He is interviewed on Portugal's economic situation by Jean-Paul Betbèze, a member of the Foundation's Scientific Committee.

On 27th May 2013 the two co-managers of the "Schuman Report on Europe-State of the Union 2013", Thierry Chopin, Studies Director for the Robert Schuman Foundation, associate expert at the CERI-Sciences Po and Michel Foucher, lecturer at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Training Manager at the National Institute for Higher Defence Studies (Institut des hautes études de défense nationale) will be presenting the work at Sciences Po CERI. The debate will be moderated by Christian Lequesne, the CERI-Sciences Po Director. On 27th May Thierry Chopin will be presenting the report on the occasion of the "Rendez-vous Bourgogne/Europe at Sciences Po Dijon. The "Schuman Report on Europe, State of the Union in 2013" is available for the first time on e-books and tablets for 10.99 euros. It is available in paper version in French and English from the Foundation's site and also in bookshops.

The Robert Schuman Foundation is involved in the Pierre Pflimlin Prize awarded to young researchers who are working on the Franco-German relationship. This prize will be given on 22nd May by Joseph Daul, the EPP group president, at the European Parliament during the European Meeting in Strasbourg organised by ENA which will be the location of many debates over a two day period.

On 15th May 2013 the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) announced that France had technically entered into recession after two successive quarters of GDP contraction. Indeed the country recorded a GDP contraction of 0.2% in the first quarter of 2013 after a similar development in the fourth quarter of 2012. The contraction in the fourth quarter of 2012 was revised to -0.2% instead of -0.3% by INSEE. According to the Economy and Finance Minister, the government will maintain its growth forecast of 0.1% in spite of a first negative quarter. INSEE also announced that French household buying power had declined by 0.9% in 2012.

According to estimates published by the German Statistics Office Destatis on 15th May 2013 the German GDP grew slightly by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2013. This "low growth" is largely due to "an abnormally long, cold winter" according to the statistics office which also revised the figures for the fourth quarter of 2012 downwards for the second time running: in its opinion the German economy contracted by 0.7% over the last three months of the year.

On 13th May 2013 the 17 Euro zone Finance Ministers supported the European Stability Mechanism's decision to pay a first tranche of aid totalling three billion euros to Cyprus. They welcomed the work undertaken by the Cypriot government and citizens, notably regarding money-laundering. The Ministers also encouraged the Greek government in its fiscal and structural reforms and announced that they were going to implement the necessary measures for the payment of the next aid tranche, to a total of 7.5 billion euros.

The Hungarian economy recorded growth of 0.7% of the GDP in the first quarter of 2013 in comparison with the previous quarter thereby emerging from recession according to provisional figures published on 15th May 2013 by the Central Statistics Bureau. Hungary entered recession in the second quarter of 2012.

The Italian government led by Enrico Letta adopted a series of measures on 17th May 2013. "The first is to suspend the payment of the SCT (the Single Council Tax) that families were to pay in June," said Mr Letta adding that his government was going to wait until "31st August in order to re-write the tax system completely, including the SCT. Mr Letta also announced the suspension of ministers' salaries who already receive an MP's salary. The Italian government adopted a decision on all of these measures and this will enter into force immediately. However it still has to be validated over the next few months by Parliament. The Council of Ministers finally affected one billion additional euros to the fund for those who were technically unemployed.

The Slovenian government led by Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek came to an agreement with the civil servants' unions on a new basis for civil servants' salaries in a bid to stabilise the country's finances. "We came to a satisfactory result," announced the Interior and Civil Service Minister, Gregor Virant after more than 11 hours of negotiations with the unions. The agreement was signed by Mr Virant and the unions' representatives. This still has to be approved by a majority of unions in the public sector and by the government. It might enter into force in June added the minister.

On 16th May 2013 the European Commission indicated that it wanted to improve cooperation in the EU to step up consumer safety. The warning system on dangerous non-food products (RAPEX) recorded 26% more warnings in 2012 in comparison with 2011. The most dangerous products are clothing, textiles and accessories (34%) and toys (19%). The main threats are chemical in origin, but there are also dangers of strangulation and injury. 58% of the products that were the focus of an alert came from China.

The European Union and the Helvetic Confederation signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation between their respective competition authorities on 17th May 2013. This is the fifth agreement of this type signed by the Union in the wake of agreements with the US, Canada, Japan and Korea. The agreement with Switzerland is innovative in that it enables the two authorities to exchange the information obtained in the course of their investigations. It will enter into force as soon as it is ratified by the European and Swiss Parliaments.

The 27 Finance Ministers agreed on 14th May 2013 on the need for greater cooperation between the national, European and international levels notably between the G8, the G20 and the OECD regarding the automatic exchange of information. The issue will be addressed on 22nd May during the European Council. They also agreed on a mandate at the European Commission to renegotiate the fiscal agreements with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and Saint-Marin. The ministers published their conclusions on financing the fight to counter climate change, on the macro-economic imbalances of the 13 Member States in question and on the single euro payment area (SEPA). They also said they were pleased with the agreement with the European Parliament on the proposal made regarding mortgage loans.

On 16th and 17th May 2013 the Culture, Education and Sports Ministers of the 27 Member States appointed Aarhus and Paphos as the European Capitals of Culture 2017 and La Valette in 2018. Ministers also debated the position of the cultural sector in the future trade negotiations with the USA and the means to employ culture as a diplomatic tool. They stressed the importance of training and employment for young people in terms of their social inclusion. Finally they looked into the results of the latest anti-doping summit in Montreal which was particularly innovative as far as the role played by public authorities was concerned.

German MPs in the Bundestag adopted the new international rules governing the capitalisation of banks - the so-called Basel III - on 16th May 2103. This makes Germany one of the first European countries to transpose this new regulatory framework which is designed to strengthen the banking sector. The Basel III standards aim mainly to strengthen banks' own funds, likewise their liquidity reserves to limit the dangers of default and to avoid further crises. They plan to set a ratio of own funds on banking establishments - ie its credits and investments have to be in proportion to its capital - by 8% by the end of 2018. The Basel III rules were initially due to enter into force as of January 1st 2013 but the date was postponed because it proved impossible to come to agreement last year.

The French and German Environment Ministers, Delphine Batho and Peter Altmaier published an article in Le Monde on 15th May 2013. In this text they highlight "energy transition" in France or the "Energiewende" in Germany "which involves decoupling growth and consumption of limited resources" and which should "lead to a significant growth in renewable energies and energy efficiency." They recall the recent decision to create a Franco-German Office for Renewable Energies. They advocate the strengthening of the community's CO2 emissions trade system and the definition of new European goals for 2013. They "decided to create a "club" of States that take on the pioneering role in energy transition and which foster renewable energies." On this issue the Foundation has published a study entitled "The Control of Energy Transition: a Franco-Germany project at the service of growth."

The Franco-German Journalism Prize Winner (PFAJ) which is celebrating its 30 anniversary in 2013 were selected in Paris on 15th May. Amongst them are Delphine Prunault who received the video prize for her report "The German Miracle - at what price?", a film that was part of the programme "Envoyé Spécial" on France2, which clearly shows the strengths and weaknesses of the German model. The Audio Prize was awarded to Delphine Simon for "My Father was called Werner" broadcast by France Inter and which, via many eyewitness reports, highlights the suffering of post-war children, which is still not healed today. The award of the Franco-German Journalism Prize will take place on 4th July next.

On 16th May 2013 French President François Hollande spoke of European issues during his press conference. "To bring Europe out of its torpor" he announced that he was going to initiate a four point European initiative: the economic government of the euro zone, youth, energy and a new stage in European integration. Moreover he decided to opt for a "marriage of convenience" with German Chancellor Merkel and responded to the wish for a political Europe as expressed by Germany "because it is no longer an affair of political sensitivity, it is an emergency". He maintained that France "is prepared to provide content to this political union."

The heads of diplomacy in the Visegrad Group comprising Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, together with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton met in Krakow on 17th May 2013.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas and a certain number of his ministers travelled to Warsaw in Poland on 13th May 2013 as part of the intergovernmental consultations. They spoke with their Polish counterparts about the place of Polish foodstuffs on the Czech market , energy and transport and notably a gas connection between the two countries. Europe was also on the agenda since the ministers discussed the preparation of the next European Council in Brussels and the Eastern Partnership Summit in November.

On a trip to the USA British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke on 13th May 2013 with the President of the USA, Barack Obama. The two men spoke of the free-trade agreement between the USA and the European Union, with David Cameron warning that everything should be "on the negotiation table" in this agreement whilst France wants to exclude the cultural exception from the discussions. Although the negotiations have not yet officially started, David Cameron declared that it was possible that the process might be launched in time for the G8 summit on 17th and 18th June.

The IMF presented a report in Warsaw on 16th May 2013 on the Polish economic situation. It indicated that Polish economic growth, that has fallen victim to the euro zone crisis, is due to slow this year to 1.2% before recovering to 2.2% in 2014. The IMF also believes that an extended economic slowing in Europe comprises a bigger threat to the Polish economy and that this might prevent the country's economic recovery. Although the IMF stressed that the Polish financial system seemed to be strong it did say however that it was important for the country to strengthen credit risk management and financial monitoring. The IMF also insisted on the need for an easing in the Polish monetary policy.

Eurostat indicated on 16th May 2013 that the euro zone and the EU had recorded a international goods trade surplus in March, to a total of 22.9 billion and 15.8 billion euros respectively. The surplus increased by over 10 billion euros with the USA and Switzerland and the deficit with China decreased. Germany was the leading export country, with over 30 billion whilst the UK (-17.6 billion) and France (-15.3 billion) are the countries with the greatest deficits.

On 16th May 2013 Eurostat published inflation figures for April. The EU and the euro zone recorded a further decline in their annual rates, from 1.4% in the EU to 1.2% in the euro zone. In comparison with the month of March 2013 this represents a decline of 0.5% both in the euro zone and in the EU. A year ago in April 2012 the rates lay at 2.6% in the euro zone and 2.7% in the EU.

The exhibition Dynamo will be at the Grand Palais, Paris until 22nd July 2013 and is presenting 150 artists covering a period of 100 years. Dynamo comprises 3,700 m2 of exhibition area illustrating how many artists have addressed the ideas of vision, space, light and movement in their works, from Calder to Kapoor - often creating exhibits in which the visitor takes part. This exhibition is devoted to vision, space, light, structures and movement in the work of modern artists from all over the world who are brought together in a chronological or thematic order.

The Prado Museum in Madrid is holding an exhibition from 21st May to 10th November 2013 called "Captive Beauty. From Fra Angelico to Fortuny". This exhibition presents nearly 250 sketches and pictures undertaken between the 14th and 19th centuries that are all small in format and intimate in terms of their common features.

Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig on 22nd May 1813. Sometimes we forget that Leipzig is not just the town of Back and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Even though Wagner's name remains connected to that of Bayreuth (Bavaria) where the composer created the world famous opera festival, Leipzig still comprised a major stage in his musical career. Operas from the world over will be celebrating the bicentenary in 2013 integrating works by Richard Wagner into their calendar. But Leipzig and Bayreuth will be the venues of the official events with concerts, exhibitions and ceremonies on 22nd May.