The ECB's Council of Governors decided on 4th July 2013 to maintain the bank's main rate at 0.50%. The facility rates on the marginal loan and the deposit facility will also remain unchanged, at 1% and 0% respectively. During his monthly press conference the ECB President Mario Draghi gave reassurance about his wish to continue supporting the euro zone's economy. "Our position on the monetary policy comprises maintaining an accommodative stance as well as promoting stability of the monetary market," he declared.

On 1st July 2013 after a meeting with the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy in Belgrade, Serb Prime Minister Ivica Dacic declared that Serbia aimed "to complete EU accession negotiations rapidly and finalise the process efficiently." Herman van Rompuy maintained that Serbia "had the full support of the European Council on its path to the EU" whilst stressing the need to continue work to implement the normalisation agreement in terms of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. He then went on to Kosovo where he congratulated Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on his commitment to support the conclusion of the agreement with Belgrade, which he deemed a model of the "spirit" of the EU based on a logic of peace and reconciliation.

On 3rd July 2013 Japan and the European Union announced that they had finalised a second round of fruitful negotiations in Tokyo in view of a free-trade agreement, which, in the long run should unite the two parties. The next round will take place in October 2013 in Brussels. On the same day they announced they were launching six new joint research projects in IT, with the aim of achieving internet that is 5000 times faster than the present average European speed.

After a tense debate on 2nd July the European Parliament adopted the report on the situation of fundamental rights in Hungary on 2nd July - 370 votes in support, 249 against and 82 abstentions. The report deems that "constitutional changes in Hungary are systematic and reveal a general trend that draws away from the European values as defined in article 2 of the Treaty on European Union." MEPs asked "for an assessment (in the case of the non-respect of the report's recommendations) of an opportunity to implement the mechanisms included in the treaty (...)" which allow sanctions against the Member States which have infringed European fundamental values. Finally MEPs declared they wanted to form a high level group to supervise the EU's values in all Member States.

Nearly six million young people are without work in Europe. On the invitation of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Labour Ministers of the 28 EU Member States, the French President, François Hollande, the President of the Spanish government, Mariano Rajoy and several other European leaders met in Berlin on 3rd July 2013 to set up real measures to act against this scourge. A package of measures was adopted after the conference like vocational training, apprenticeship, sandwich courses, professional and geographical mobility and financial aid for young people.

On 3rd July 2013 Belgian King Albert II officially announced that he intended to abdicate from the throne to be replaced by his son Prince Philippe. Albert II believes that his age and his health no longer allow him to fulfil his office as he would like. Aged 79, Albert II chose to abdicate on 21st July, on the Belgian National Day, after 20 years on the throne.

On 3rd July 2013 the IMF supported the Bulgarian government, sharply criticised by the population, in its efforts to aid the poorest and businesses, whilst retaining a certain degree of fiscal stability. Hence it declared that the political problems had, to date, only had a limited impact on the economy but were still a threat, due to uncertainty in the euro zone. It advised the government to continue structural reforms and implement measures to reduce unemployment which now totals 10.8% of the working population. Regarding the review of the budget planned for by the government the IMF deemed the goal of a deficit of 1.4% of the GDP in 2013 as achieveable whilst the government had forecast that it might grow to 3.8% of the GDP.

On July 1st the day it joined the EU Croatia hosted the heads of State of the Western Balkans for a meeting that aimed to improve relations in this region which hopes to integrate the EU. The aim of this meeting - which brought together the heads of State from Slovenia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia as well as the three members of the collective presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina - was the creation of a forum that aims to discuss the region's common interests. It hence marks the start of regular meetings between the heads of State of eight countries, to which a political leader of one of the EU Member States or a European institution will systematically be invited (the 8+1 initiative).

On 4th July 2013 Wolfgang Schäuble, German Finance Minister and Philip Rösler, the German Economy Minister, together with their Spanish counterparts, Luis de Guindos, Economy Minister and José Manuel Soria, Industry Minister, presented the loan agreement signed between the German public investment bank KfW and the Spanish Credit Institute ICO. As part of this agreement the KfW will grant 800 million euro in loans to the ICO which will invest this money in Spanish SME's. This agreement finalises the announcement made in April in Spain of a bilateral plan that aims to provide SME's with liquidities and to encourage investments and the creation of jobs in Spain.

On 2nd July 2013 the first Franco-German conference on energy took place, bringing together the French and German environment ministries, researchers, top ranking industrial executives and political decision makers. The two ministers maintained that France and Germany wanted to make the energy transition a focus of cooperation between the two countries. The conference led to an assessment of interactions between the energy policies in the two countries, to define the effects of synergy and to draw lessons of experiences made by both sides. This cooperation should continue even if there is a new French minister on 3rd July.

On 2nd July 2013 French President François Hollande hosted his Lithuanian counterpart Dalia Grybauskaite whose country is undertaking the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the next six months. The two leaders discussed the Multiannual Financial Framework. They also said "they wanted Banking Union "to continue to be established over the next few months." François Hollande declared that he fully approved the two goals which the Lithuanian president wishes to target over the next semester i.e. network interconnexion, European energy policy as well as an Eastern neighbourhood policy.

On 2nd and 3rd July 2013 the Visegrad Group which brings together Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia met in Wisla as part of the handing over of the presidency from Poland to Hungary (July 1st). Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski stressed the group's political and economic potential as well as the interest it represents for the European project. The Association of States of Central Europe in the areas of infrastructure and the human sphere formed the focus of discussions. In this context Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich joined the discussions. Following this the group firmly declared that it supported Ukraine's integration into Europe. Regarding former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko the Ukrainian president declared that he was looking into solutions that fell in line with the Ukrainian law.

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho announced on 6th July the appointment as Deputy Prime Minister Paulo Portas. "I put forward Paulo Portas as Deputy Prime Minister who will be responsible for the coordination of economic policies and relations with the troika", announced Mr Passos Coelho. Mr Portas is the head of the conservative party, CDS-PP, whose alliance with the Prime Minister's Social Democratic Party (PSD) has guaranteed the coalition in office since June 2011 the absolute majority in Parliament. There were fears of government collapse after the resignation of Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar and thereafter the failure of the implementation of the financial rescue programme granted by the EU and the IMF in May 2011. The agreement still has to be approved by the Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva. Apart from the appointment of Mr Portas the head of government confirmed the appointment of Maria Luis Albuquerque as the new Finance Minister.

On 5th July 2013 British MPs voted in support of a draft bill designed to guarantee the organisation of a referendum by 2017 on the UK belonging to the EU. The 304 MPs present out of the 650 in the House of Commons, nearly all Conservatives approved this text unanimously, opening the way following a parliamentary process. Foreign Minister William Hague deemed that "it was a good start for the draft law, it strengthens our commitment to organising a referendum by the end of 2017, for or against remaining in a reformed EU." He added that labour had tried to make the draft bill fail, suggesting "they will try later on to prevent it in various ways."

In July 2013 Eurobarometer published a survey on European attitudes regarding green products. This survey which focused on six points (including European attitudes to green products, the importance of the environmental factor for European citizens and the reliability of products) notably suggests that Europeans support the introduction of environmental action. More and more of them are changing their consumption habits and are taking the environmental factor into account when they go shopping.

According to Eurostat estimates published on 3rd July 2013, in May 2013 the volume of retail trade sales increased by 1% in the euro zone and by 1.2% in the European Union in comparison with April. Over the same period the "food, drink and tobacco" sectors have grown by 0.9% in the euro zone and by 1.5% in all Member States. The non-food sector has progressed respectively by 0.9% and 1%. We should note that sales in the retail trade have increased in all Member States where data is available, except for in Romania (-3%), Hungary (-0.4%) and Bulgaria (-0.3%).

The international role played by the euro, the world's second most important currency after the dollar, suffered due to the crisis in 2012, according to an ECB report published on 2nd July 2013. This has emerged in a decline in the euro's share in the world's foreign currency reserves by more than one point, dropping to 23.9% at the end of 2012 in comparison with 25.1%, a year ago, at constant rates. The role played by the euro also declined in the debt market, down to 25.5% in comparison with 26.2% at the end of 2011. "Tension on the sovereign debt market in the euro zone had probably impeded the emission of international debts in euros," explained Jörg Asmussen, a member of the ECB's board, however the improvement that has been confirmed by several surveys allows us to conclude that this decline in the euro's role "hit a low in the second half of 2012 and that the phenomenon has now even reversed."

For 2000 years Cleopatra has fascinated and influenced art, literature, music and the cinema. Until 6th October 2013 the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn is offering the public a rich, contrasted image of this "eternal diva", who has been our heritage over the centuries. Countless texts, pictures, photos, sculptures and extracts of films brought together by the Bundeskunsthalle show at which point in each period, each artist has re-created "his/her" Queen Egypt.