The Covid-19 crisis has left the feeling that Europeans lack solidarity and trust in each other, especially in budgetary matters. Yet the Union's integration model has benefited all its members. In order to strengthen confidence, it is necessary to reinforce the communication effort and the Union's cultural and moral dimension.

Since the rigged presidential election of August 9, the Belarusian people have been protesting against the continued rule of President Alexander Lukashenko. While the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is in exile in Lithuania and arrests of opponents and police violence continue, the European Union is calling for political dialogue and preparing sanctions against the regime. To follow this crisis, the Foundation offers you a chronology of events and links to European reactions and initiatives.

As more and more governments around the world break international rules, including the British government which is considering breaking the agreement reached with the EU last year, the European continent must not forget that only the law guarantees freedoms and protects it from excesses, Jean-Dominique Giuliani underlines.

2020 was forecast to be a busy Chinese-European year on the diplomatic front, with numerous meetings designed to bring crucial issues such as the investment agreement to a successful conclusion. The coronavirus crisis and China's attitude, between mask diplomacy and the strategy of the "wolf warriors", crystallised the turning point taken by the Union, towards a more balanced relationship, more respectful of European interests.

Since the start of the health crisis, some Member States have suspended free movement and have withdrawn behind their national borders, flouting EU rules. Now that the ambitious European recovery plan is being put in place, it is time to consider making its benefits conditional on another step forward, since the harmonisation of health decisions has an impact on free movement. Those who keep their borders closed to their European partners should be excluded from the benefits of the recovery plan, says Jean-Dominique Giuliani.

As we return from the summer holidays, the 27 member states of the European Union are trying to determine the conditions for resuming activities without triggering a resurgence of the epidemic. The Robert Schuman Foundation publishes an overview of the sanitary measures and travel conditions across Europe. An essential resource for understanding the sequence that is beginning. The table will be regularly updated.

An area of trade and conflict since antiquity, the Mediterranean Sea remains a major crossroads for the interaction of the main strategic competitors. The multiplication of actors, and the inevitable duplicity that goes with it, generate the ambiguity of stated or real intentions. But Europe is best placed to understand this uncertain space and take a more active part.

The member states of the European Union have emerged from the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and are resuming their social and economic activities. How did they manage the health crisis and what are its socio-political consequences? What are the responses to the economic shock ? What about the dynamics between European countries and regional trends? While it is still too early to assess the crisis, the Foundation wishes, through this collection, to contribute to the understanding of the sequence we are going through.

The Foundation published the following studies in July:
- Relations between the European Union and the UK: a final agreement in sight? by Christian Lequesne
- What should we make of the Just Transition Mechanism put forward by the European Commission? by Olivier Marty
- Dinner at Jefferson's (or how the USA created the federal public debt) by Jean-Guy Giraud
- Managing Covid-19, a journey through Europe by Robert Schuman Foundation
- Outgoing President Andrzej Duda is re-elected by a hair's breadth to lead Poland by Corinne Deloy
- Outgoing Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's Democratic Union (HDZ) wins the general election in Croatia by Corinne Deloy

Summer is here, cultural life is back and travel in Europe is possible again. For this last edition on the best of cultural Europe, the Foundation publishes a selection of shows to follow in July and August. Some of the biggest and most renowned festivals will not take place this year. But all over the continent, other festivals will be held, in reduced format or partially online.

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The Foundation organised an online conference on the topic of the media and telecoms in Europe in times of Covid-19 with Roberto Viola, Director-General of DG CONNECT at the European Commission, Gérard Pogorel and Augusto Preta, authors of a recently published study by the Foundation on this topic

Contrary to popular discourse, Jean-Dominique Giuliani shows that the European Union has the means to address the new challenges of the 21st century. Europe has succeeded beyond the expectations of its founding fathers. It can still succeed in guaranteeing its place among the three greatest powers in the world by the end of the century.

The failures of certain merger projects like Alstom/Siemens call into question the inadequacy, or even obsolescence, of European competition law and its place in relation to other public policy objectives. Other challenges arise: on the one hand, the existing law faces the challenges raised by the digital economy; on the other hand, European competition law does not take sufficient account of international competition. Should a rebalancing not be carried out between competition policy and industrial policy so that the objectives of the latter can be deployed?