On 8th January 2014 the Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Jean-Dominique Giuliani spoke on Arte in the programme "28 minutes". He debated alongside Dominique Seux, of the daily "Les Echos" and Xavier Timbeau, economist at the "Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques", about the economic situation in Europe, five years after the start of the economic crisis. The Foundation's Chairman invited Europeans to be optimistic about the future: the euro is the second most important reserve currency in the world and Europe still attracts many students and workers. Of course the crisis has been costly but it should enable the European economy to improve over the next few years. As for France he believes that we have to remind politicians that economic reality is neither on the left or the right.

On 8th January 2014 the Italian Statistics Institute (ISTAT) published its monthly report on the Italian labour market. In November 2013 unemployment totalled 12.7% recording a rise of 0.2% in comparison with the previous month and of 1.4% on an annual basis. However the number of unemployed rose by 0.8% in comparison with October 2013 and by 12.1% over one year. Regarding youth unemployment (15-24 year olds) it totalled 41.6% in November 2013, which is a 0.2% rise in comparison with the previous month and a 4% increase on an annual basis.

The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee gave the greenlight (36 votes in support, 2 against and 1 abstention) for a hearing with Edward Snowden on 9th January 2014 - the latter was the source of revelations about massive tapping by the National Security Agency in the US. Exiled in Russia Mr Snowden will neither travel to Brussels nor to Strasbourg but will be interviewed via an "interactive" video-conference.

On 1st January 2014 the period of transition for Bulgaria and Romania came to an end. Bulgarians and Romanians will now be able to move and work freely across the entire EU territory, without having to have a work permit. Previously Bulgarian and Romanian citizens could travel freely to 19 of the 28 Member States which had not set any transitory measures after their accession to the EU in 2007.

The nuclear agreement concluded at the end of November between Iran and the major powers will be implemented as of 20th January 2014. The representatives of Iran and the EU came to agreement after a meeting on 9th and 10th January 2014 in Geneva for the implementation of the interim agreement on Teheran's nuclear programme - a project that still has to be ratified by the signatory countries. The EU's head diplomat Catherine Ashton, who is leading negotiations on behalf of the 5+1 group (China, US, France, UK, Russia and Germany) welcomed the start of "a coherent, strong, and progressive" implementation of the agreement.

On 7th January 2014 the European Court of Auditors welcomed four new members: Dutchman Alex Brenninkmeijer; French womn Danièle Lamarque; Greek, Nikolaos Milionis and Briton Phil Wynn Owen. They were appointed by the respective Member States after consultation with the European Parliament and the Council. They will start their first term in office this week and this will be renewable in six years time. Moreover the Luxembourger Henri Grethen's mandate was renewed on 1st January 2014 for a six year period.

On 7th January the Council of the European Union recommended the appointment of German Sabine Lautenschläger to the executive board of the ECB in replacement of Mr Asmussen. The name of 49 year old Ms Lautenschläger, Vice-President of the German Central Bank where she is responsible for monitoring loans companies, was put forward at the end of December by Berlin. Moreover the ECB board appointed four general managers on 9th January 2014 who will lead the unique supervisory mechanism: Stefan Walter, director for world regulation and monitoring policies with Ernst & Young; Ramon Quintana, general manager for banking supervision with the Bank of Spain; Jukka Vesala, deputy general manager of the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority and Korbinian Ibel, a member of the risk management and capital group for Commerzbank AG.

The call for tender "Naval Training Support Study" (NTSS) launched by the European Defence Agency was won on 6th January 2014 by the French semi-state owned company DCI (Défense Conseil International) in consortium with the British company SCS (Systems Consultants Services Ltd). These businesses are due to undertake a study of navigation training, mining warfare and diving. The study will initially establish the cartography of the means and methods of the various naval training systems in Europe, it will identify common needs in terms of training and analyse the capability gaps in order to offer ways to improve and harmonise them.

According to provisional figures released by the German Federal Statistics Office on 8th January 2014 Germany recorded a rise in its population in 2013 to total 80.8 million due to an increase in immigration in 2013 of over 400,000 foreigners. This inflow, which has been unprecedented since 1993 has compensated the deficit in births. Germany has therefore recovered its positive migratory balance over the last three years. The flow has even gathered pace. The number foreigners settling in Germany totalled 279,000 in 2011 and 369,000 in 2012.

On 8th January 2014 Ms Aleqa Hammond, the Greenland Prime Minister travelled to Copenhagen to meet her Danish counterpart Ms Helle Thorning-Schmidt. They spoke of bilateral relations between Denmark and Greenland: the reconciliation process, EU relations and energy issues. Aleqa Hammond said she was pleased with the smooth running of the talks with Ms Thorning-Schmidt notably regarding the reconciliation process and the acknowledgement of Greenland's responsibility in terms of raw materials. Denmark promised the autonomous territory of Denmark the signature of an agreement by the end of the year enabling the extraction of uranium ore from the Arctic island. "I believe that we shall establish a cooperation agreement in the second half of 2014," declared Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

On 8th January 2014 the "Commission Nationale de l'informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) published a press release declaring that Google Inc. had been fined 150,000€ on 3rd January 2014. The CNIL deems that confidentiality rules set in place since the merger of around 60 Google Services in March 2012 are not in line with the "Informatique and Libertés" law. In addition to the fine of 150,000€ the CNIL has invited Google to publish a press release on this decision on its home page. The French conclusions are similar to those made previously by the Spanish and Dutch.

The Greek President of the Council of the European Union was inaugurated on 8th January 2014. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras deemed "that the Greek presidency was a chance to show that the future would not be defined by the crisis, but by the lessons to be drawn from it." Greece's priorities focus on the return of growth, the fight to counter youth unemployment, support to investments, improvement in access to business financing, the consolidation of banking union, the deepening of economic and monetary union as well as a particular interest being paid to mobility. Maritime and energy issues will also be one of the specific themes of this presidency marked by the European elections that will take place from 22nd to 25th May 2014.

The new group to be born of the merger of two car manufacturers Fiat and Chrysler will have a "new name" and might be floated on the exchange in New York or Hong Kong declared its CEO Sergio Marchionne to La Repubblica on 10th January 2014. "Then we shall go where the money is," indicated the executive in his first interview since the announcement on 1st January of new 100% input by Fiat in Chrysler's capital totalling 4.35 billion dollars. Until now Fiat held 58.5% of Chrysler. The merger will give rise to the 7th biggest car group in the world.

On January 6th 2014 Latvian President Andris Berzins asked Laimdota Straujuma, a 62 year-old economist and Agriculture Minister since 2011, to form a new coalition government. Once confirmed Ms Straujuma will become the first women head of government in Latvia. The latter has a population of two million inhabitants, has been an EU member since 2004 and a euro zone member since January 1st. "I decided to ask Laimdota Straujuma to start the process of establishing a new cabinet," declared Mr Berzins. Ms Straujuma is due to lead this government until the elections planned for October 2014.

Czech President Milos Zeman announced on 10th January 2014 that he will appoint Bohuslav Sobotka, the Social Democratic leader (CSSD) Prime Minister on 17th January. During a meeting on 10th January 2014 Mr Sobotka presented the head of State with the coalition agreement signed by three parties (CSSD, ANO, KDU-CSL) which will form the next government. According to the coalition agreement established on 6th January the future government will include 8 Social Democrats from the CSSD, 6 members of the populist party, ANO and three Christian-Democrats (KDU-CSL). This coalition has the support of 111 MPs (out of 200) in the Lower Chamber of Parliament.

On 10th January the House of Lords discussed the draft bill drawn up by a Conservative MP and defended by Conservative Lord Dobbs, a member of British Prime Minister David Cameron's party, on the organisation of a referendum on the EU in 2017. Although the draft bill was passed in the opening session of debate it is facing the resolute opposition of Labour which intends to make amendments in order to extend the procedure; if the draft is not adopted by the House of Lords before the end of the working session Prime Minister Cameron will have to put it forward in the next session. This referendum is to decide on whether the UK will remain an EU Member State or not.

On 7th and 8th January 2014 Jack Lew the American Treasury Secretary went on a tour of Europe during which he met several French, German and Portuguese officials. The aim was to discuss policies that aim to support world growth and to promote financial stability. Negotiations on the EU/US free trade agreement were also on the agenda. Mr Lew travelled to Paris on 7th January to meet French President François Hollande as well as Economy and Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici. On 8th January Jack Lew was Wolfgang Schäuble's guest in Berlin. On 8th January he met his Portuguese counterpart in Lisbon, Maria Luis Albuquerque.

On 12th January 2014 a pro-European demonstration took place in Maidan against the attack suffered by former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko on 10th January. On 9th January the Ukrainian oil company, Naftogaz and Russian Gazprom signed an agreement to reduce the price of gas that Kyiv buys from Moscow. According to the agreement in the first quarter of 2014 Russia will reduce the price paid by Ukraine by one quarter. The agreement also plans for a quarterly revision of the gas price between the two countries. Opponent Vitali Klitschko said that after the Orthodox Christmas celebrated on 7th December 2014 he was expecting a further wave of demonstrations. He also stressed that he intended to prepare a "general strike across the country."

The aeronautics giant EADS merged its military and space activities on 1st January rebranding as "Airbus Group", which is the next stage in the metamorphosis of this European industrial champion. By rallying together its activities under one strong brand, Airbus Group has also renamed two of this three divisions. From now on the Group includes: Airbus, which concentrates on commercial aircraft activities; Airbus Defence and Space, integrating the Group's defence and space activities from Cassidian, Astrium, and Airbus Military; and Airbus Helicopters comprising all commercial and military helicopter activities.

According to figures published on 7th January 2014 by Eurostat, the euro zone's annual inflation rate was estimated at 0.8% in December 2013 which is down in comparison with November when it lay at 0.9%. This decline has rekindled fears of deflation in the euro zone. As a comparison in December 2012 inflation lay at 2.2%.

Manufacturing in the euro zone registered its highest level of growth in two and a half years in December - a sign that recovery is gathering pace in spite of concern in France. The Purchasing Managers' Index lay at 52.7 against 51.6 in November according to a second estimate published on 2nd January by the consultancy Markit. It was at its highest rate in over 31 months.

Septentrion publishing recently released a book entitled "Le modèle franco-allemand: les clés d'une paix perpetuelle? Analyse des mécanismes de coopération". The authors of the book look into the reasons for the peaceful development of Franco-German relations since 1945 and try to see whether common experience can be considered systematically in settling relations between countries. The authors of this book notably show that a key element to the Franco-German friendship is the supra-national framework which obliges them to come to political compromise.

The Atelier Grognard of Rueil-Malmaison is hosting 74 works in the collection belonging to the Foundation 'Regards de Provence' until 17th March 2014 as part of its exhibition "The Painters of the Provence Landscape 1850 to 1920". The exhibition provides visitors with an opportunity to see the Provence landscape via several generations of regional and Parisian painters like Signac, Ziem, Friez, Lombard, Olive, Loubon, Camoin and Marquet.