ANO, led by billionaire Andrej Babis easily won the general election in the Czech Republic on 20th and 21st October with 29.64% of the vote and 78 seats. The Democratic Civic Party (ODS) came second with 11.32% of the vote and 25 seats, followed by the Pirate Party (P), 10.79% and 22 seats, the nationalist party, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) won 10.64% and 22 seats, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) 7.76% and 15 seats, the Social Democratic Party (CSSD) of outgoing Prime Minister 7.27% and 15 seats, the People's Christian Democratic Party (KDU-CSL), 5.80% and 11 seats; Tradition, Responsibility, Prosperity 09 (TOP 09), 5.31% and 6 seats and the Mayors and Independents (STAN) 5.18% and 6 seats. In all 9 parties will be represented in the House of Deputies. Andrej Babis is due to become Prime Minister but which with coalition?

On 26th October in Bratislava, Charles de Marcilly, Manager of the Foundation's Brussels office is taking part in a conference entitled "Weimar Triangle and Visegrad Group: which contribution to the future of the Union?"

On 18th October President of the European Council, Donald Tusk unveiled a roadmap for the next two years. He hopes to reconcile "unity with dynamism" with a more political approach to European summits, a better implementation of decisions in the Member States and a regular assessment of the Bratislava process.

On 18th October the European Commission presented a series of measures that aim to guarantee greater protection to European citizens against the terrorist threat. Amongst these feature an action plan to protect public spaces and the strengthening of the EU's external action in terms of countering terrorism with the creation of a future European Intelligence Unit.

The first stage of the reform of the directive on posted work moved onto a new stage in the European Parliament on 16th October. The "Employment and Social Affairs" Committee indeed adopted a balanced "text that opens the way to an improvement of the protection of workers and to a sharper manner to counter social dumping," said Elisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP, FR) the text's co-rapporteur.

On 17th October the 28 European Affairs Ministers the draft conclusions of the European Council of 19th and 20th October. They also debated the state of progress in negotiations linked to the Brexit.

On 18th October, ECB President Mario Draghi maintained that the monetary easing policy in force in the euro zone, typified by low interest rates, provided a unique opportunity to undertake structural reforms, the conditions for the resilience of the economies.

Airbus CEO, Tom Enders and his Bombardier counterpart, Alain Bellemare announced on 17th October that Airbus will be buying a majority of the shares in Bombardier's C series.

On 20th October the President of the Austrian Republic, Alexander van der Bellen officially asked Sebastian Kurz, leader of the ÖVP who won the general elections on 15th October to form a government. This declaration opens the way to negotiations in the aim of forming a coalition.

The European G6 Interior Ministers, who met in Sevilla agreed on the need to form more links and to strengthen solidarity with key countries in Africa to counter migration. Regarding the fight to counter terrorism, they advocate stepping up the exchange of information and intelligence via channels like Interpol, Europol and via the European directive on PNR (passenger files).

On 16th October French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe travelled to Brussels to meet his Belgian counterpart, Charles Michel and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker. They discussed the fight to counter terrorism and the creation of a Franco-Belgian work group on penal action against crime and terrorism. With the Commission's president, discussions also focused on France's budgetary trajectory and on Paris's exit of the "excessive deficit" procedure.

The meeting of G7 interior Ministers took place in Ischia on 19th and 20th October. Devoted to countering terrorism the meeting led to in-depth dialogue with the representatives of the Internet giants regarding questions of internet use for terrorist ends. The goal was to launch an action plan aiming to prevent terrorist content automatically.

Portuguese Interior Minister, Constança Urbano de Sousa resigned on 18th October whilst the government is coming under increasing criticism for its management of the forest fires that have caused 100 deaths in under four months.

On 16th October British Prime Minister Theresa May dined with the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU's negotiator in chief for the Brexit, Michel Barnier. They discussed progress towards the UK's exit and came to agreement to step up negotiations over the next few months.

On 17th October the Council of Europe published a report noting the progress achieved since 2003 by 46 European States as far as the participation of women in public and political life is concerned. A great deal remains to be done since the share of women in the lower house of parliament is above 40% in Finland and Sweden only, whilst none of the 46 countries achieves the 40% representation mark in the upper house.

The European Court of Human Rights delivered its conclusions on 17th October in the Navalnyye vs Russia case. It condemned Russia for having infringed article 6§1 that provides for a fair trial, as well as article 7 that provides that no one can be sentenced to prison for an act that is not classed as an infringement of the law in force.

Employment in the OECD zone is up by 0.2 points to 67.7% in the second quarter of 2017, according to OECD figures published on 17th October. The highest increases have been observed in Greece (0.8%), Portugal (+0.6%), Spain (+0.6%) and Slovenia (+0.5%).

According to Eurostat the euro zone recorded a trade surplus of 16.1 billion euro in August 2017. The EU is in deficit by 5.1 billion euro over the same period.

64% of EU citizens say that their country has benefited from being a member of the EU, ie a 4% increase in comparison with 2016. Moreover, 33% of those interviewed have a positive image of the European Parliament which is 8 points more than last year.

Georges Prevelakis, Professor at the University Pantheon-Sorbonne, member of the Géographie-Cités Laboratory and associate member of the CERI (Sciences Po) published the work "Who are the Greeks?" (Qui sont les Grecs?) with the CNRS in which he looks into the identity of the Greeks, notably in light of the present crises that are striking the country.

The National Portrait Gallery of London is showing portraits by Paul Cézanne from 26th October 2017 to 11th February 2018. For the first time ever 50 of the 160 portraits that Cézanne painted have been brought together in one exhibition from private and public collections.