Sergio Mattarella was elected President of the Republic of Italy on 31st January by 655 votes in support out of a possible 995 voters during a fourth round of voting. This was 150 votes more than the 505 necessary to be able to take over from outgoing Head of State Giorgio Napolitano who resigned from office on 14th January last. Aged 73 Sergio Mattarella, who is close to the Democratic Party, has sat as a judge at the Constitutional Court since 11th October 2011. He will become the 12th President of Italy for a mandate of 7 years.

On 28th January the European Commission launched its project to create a Capital Markets Union for the 28 Member States of the EU by doing away with obstacles to cross-border investment and by reducing the cost of financing within the EU. It is one of the leading projects in the Commission's work programme since the single capital market should also facilitate the mobilisation of private financing as part of the "Investment Plan for Europe". The CMU project was the focus of a consensus within the College of Commissioners which concluded that a Green Paper should be adopted next month to "consult all of the interested parties on the path to follow and the real areas of potential action."

On 28th January the European Commission published its annual reports on the development of the fight to counter corruption in Romania and Bulgaria in 2014. According to the report Bulgaria has serious a problem with organised crime and witness protection. The cases where major corruption affairs or organised crime finally reach court are very rare. The lack of independence of the judicial branch and political instability simply make the problem worse. The Commission does note however that work has been done on the analysis by the Higher Magistrates Council of the burden of work in courts, and the implementation of the reform of the public ministry. Regarding Romania a great deal of progress has been made. The main judicial institutions have made this battle a priority and their determination to defend the independence of the judicial system has strengthened the confidence of Romanian citizens. However progress needs to be consolidated and made secure. Hence there are still problems, for example Parliament is still reticent about implementing final judicial decisions or decisions taken by the Constitutional Court.

On 26th January the Council appointed the members of the Committee of Regions for a period of five years from 26th January 2015 to 25th January 2020. The 353 members appointed by the Council on the proposal of the Member States are responsible for representing the regions and other areas in the EU. The EU treaty demands that members of the Committee, as well as being representatives of regional and local communities, hold a regional or local electoral mandate or that they are political leaders of an elected assembly.

The euro zone Finance Ministers, who met in Brussels on 26th January are "very motivated" to work with the new Greek government and to move forward on the path to recovery" declared Jeroen Dijsselbloem, President of the Eurogroup saying however that "major issues in the Greek economy had not disappeared and had not changed from one day to the next just because there had been an election." Ministers also spoke of monetary transition in Lithuania which officially adopted the euro on January 1st 2015. They also formally welcomed the Lithuanian Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius as a "fully fledged member of the Eurogroup." They highlighted the need for strong action on the part of the Member States in terms of fiscal consolidation, investment, structural reform, in the respect of the Stability and Growth Pact in order to foster growth in the euro zone.

On 27th January the European Economy and Finance Ministers met to examine the proposal to create a European Strategic Investment Fund thereby confirming that they want to come to agreement by March 2015, so that the first investment programmes can be launched mid-year. They discussed the Commission's proposal to grant macro-financial assistance of up to 1.8 billion euro to Ukraine concluding that a decision had to be taken quickly. Moreover they modified the mother/subsidiary directive adding an anti-abuse clause to prevent tax evasion and optimisation by fostering a better application of the directive in all States. Finally they approved two agreements concluded with the European Parliament: the first of these establishes new rules to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the second involves new rules to ensure the quality and reliability of EU statistics.

The 28 Home Affairs Ministers adopted a "concrete, ambitious" battle plan in Riga on 29th January to counter the propaganda of radical Islamists and to prevent any further attacks in Europe. A series of real actions were adopted in a common declaration. They will be discussed during a European Summit on 12th February. The EU wants to be able to make the control of EU citizens obligatory on their arrival on the external borders of the Schengen Area, notably at airports. The EU also wants to have a European air passenger data register in order to be able to monitor the movements of suspects. They are also going to adopt technology to be able to follow exchanges over the social networks, block sites, pictures and messages used to radicalise young people and to be able to decipher some communications. Europol, the European Criminal Police office, will be given this task. It finally wants to work against the causes of radicalisation in certain Muslim communities in Europe, notably in prison and prevent people from being recruited by Islamic movements, prevent their departure for war zones in Syria, Iraq and Libya and also locate them when they return to Europe so that they cannot do harm. It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5000 Member States' citizens have left for these countries 30% of whom approximately have come back.

Meeting in Riga on 30th January European Justice Ministers noted the conclusions adopted by the Interior Ministers on 29th January highlighting that they want to continue the most recent work to enhance measures to counter terrorism in Europe via the "maximum use of legislative and non-legislative instruments in the area of justice." Moreover they debated the pertinence of widening the implementation of existing legislation on data protection to the police and criminal justice. Finally ministers discussed the means to promote "digital justice" in order to modernise the judicial area so that citizens can have easier access to it.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls travelled on an official visit to China from 29th to 31st January. He met the Chinese President and Prime Minister and visited several French companies, including the Airbus assembly factory in Beijing. The main aim of this meeting lay in stepping up trade between China and France. The Prime Minister recalled that France is "open to China"; investors, students and tourists are all welcome to come. In 2014 France notably launched a policy to facilitate the visa system for tourists and students from China in view of making France the world's "leader in tourism." However this visit was also an opportunity to call for a re-balancing in trade relations between the two countries.

On 29th January in Paris further Franco-Polish consultations took place. Eva Kopacz's visit to François Hollande is part of the Franco-Polish cooperation programme adopted on 29th November 2013. The two leaders discussed key issues in their partnership. In terms of security, defence and foreign policy France and Poland said they wanted to join forces on a diplomatic plan to counter terrorism, ensure peace in Europe and put an end to the vicious circle of violence in Ukraine. From an economic point of view François Hollande and Eva Kopacz reiterated their determination to revive growth and employment in Europe, via the introduction of a productive investment policy, economic and fiscal policy coordination, a programme to counter youth unemployment and development of the EU's social dimension. Cooperation in the area of energy security and the promotion of cultural, scientific and university partnerships were also addressed. The next intergovernmental consultations will take place in Poland at the beginning of 2016.

On the occasion of his first council of Ministers on 28th January, the new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras repeated that he wanted "negotiate debt relief" hoping to find "a fair, viable and mutually useful solution," with his creditors. He also announced a series of "anti-austerity" measures notably the halt of privatisation of the port of Piraeus and that of Thessaloniki. Following his official visit to Greece on 29th January, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, stressed that negotiation between Greece and the EU over its debt could only be done "via consensus and non-provocation". The country's political and economic situation is, in his opinion, "weak but not desperate". "Ignoring the agreements is not the right path to take," indicated the President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem after his meeting with the new Greek government on 30th January in Athens. On the same day Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho declared that he was against any discourse that might upset investors. He said that Portugal would not follow the same path as Greece in its request to restructure the debt. In an interview with the German newspaper, Die Welt, on 31st January German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected outright the idea of "any further cancellation of the debt" recalling that "Greece had already been exempted from billions of euros by the banks." "Europe will continue to stand by Greece as it has done with other countries that were particularly affected by the crisis, on condition that these countries undertake the necessary reform and savings," she added. Finally on February 1st, during a press conference with his French counterpart Michel Sapin, the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varufakis declared that he wanted a global agreement on the financial situation in Greece to be found by the end of May" stating that the Greek government was not going to ask for "any further loans" from the country's creditors within that time.

The peace talks in Minsk on 31st January over the conflict in the separatist pro-Russian east of Ukraine did not lead to an agreement, declared Kyiv's envoy, former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, accusing the rebels of having undermined the discussions. "The Minsk consultations are a failure," declared Mr Kuchma explaining that the leaders of the break-away republic who signed the previous agreements did not come to Minsk whilst their envoys "refused to discuss measures for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy arms." "The Ukrainian side accepts no ultimatum," he continued. Negotiations between the Contact Group comprising Mr Kuchma, Russian representatives, the OSCE and the rebels lasted nearly four hours in the Belarus capital where the peace agreements were signed in September and which have not been respected.

In the euro zone the unemployment rate lay at 11.4% in December 2014, down in comparison with November when it lay at 11.5% and 11.8% in December 2013. This is the slightest reduction in unemployment recorded in the euro zone since August 2012. In the EU the unemployment rate lay at 9.9% in December 2014 down in comparison with the November figure of 10% and 10.6% in December 2013. The EU's unemployment rate has therefore decreased under the 10% mark for the first time since October 2011. Amongst the Member States the lowest unemployment rates in December 2014 were recorded in Germany (4.8%) Austria (4.9%), and the highest were in Greece (25.8% in October 2014) and Spain (23.7%). These figures were published by Eurostat on 30th January.

Inflation in January 2015 is said to have fallen again in comparison with December 2014: whilst it was already negative last month (-0.2%); a Eurostat study dated 30th January deems that the inflation rate in January was -0.6%. These negative rates are said to be due mainly to a fall in energy prices (-8.9% in January), and also to the decrease in foodstuff prices, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (-0.1% against 0.0% in December).The only increase forecast by the study concerns services up by 1%.

On 29th January the European Court of Human Rights published its activity report 2014. Its president, Dean Spielmann indicated that the Court's activity has continued along its positive trajectory started in 2013 and highlights a decrease in requests of around 30%. This reduction might be explained by the new approach in terms of the requirements necessary for a request to be attributed to a judicial organisation. It also insists on the need for each Member State to ensure that endemic issues are resolved nationally rather than being brought to the Court. Regarding the country by country statistics the States against which the most judgments were issued and where there was at least one infringement of the Convention were Russia (122 judgments), Turkey (94), Romania (74), Greece (50) and Hungary (49). Moreover on 31st December 2014 most of the pending cases were against Ukraine (19.5%), Italy (14.4%), Russia (14.3%) and Turkey (13.6%).

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps, the Shoah Memorial is running an exhibition until 27th September 2015 "Filming War: the Soviet troops and the Shoah (1941-1946)". This exhibition mainly shows unique images on the opening of graves, evidence of mass execution in eastern Europe (Babi Yar, Rostov, Krasnodar, Kerch etc...) on the liberation of the concentration and death camps (Klooga; Maidanek, Auschwitz ...) as well as the multiple trials and executions that followed the liberation.

On Thursday 5th February the 65th Berlinale, the international film festival of Berlin will be taking place. This festival, created by the Allies in 1951 aimed to be "showcase of the free world". It is now one of the biggest international festivals alongside the Cannes and Venice Festivals. This year its Chair Dieter Kosslick wants to pay tribute to free thought and to women. He insisted in his inaugural speech on the fact that artists in the Berlinale took courageous stances on issues like religion, immigration and homophobia. Dieter Kossalick hopes that the programme will be proof of free thinking. For 10 days the panel (comprising, amongst others Audrey Tautou, Darren Aronofsky and Daniel Brühl) will have to decide between 19 films for the Golden Bear award and the various Silver Bears.

From 24th January to 10th April 2015 the Royal Academy of Arts in London is hosting an exhibition called "Rubens and his Legacy - Van Dyck to Cézanne". This exhibition brings together the Flemish Baroque artist's creations as well as major works by illustrious artists who were influenced by him in the following generations (Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Delacroix, Constable and Gainsborough). Rubens' art embraces a wide range of subjects, from religious and mythological scenes to landscapes and portraits. Each of these areas is seen via six themes : power, luxury, compassion, elegance, poetry and violence.