The President of the Republic of Latvia has been elected by the 100 members of the Saeima, the only chamber in Parliament. Valdis Zatlers, the candidate supported by the four parties in the government coalition (People's Party (TP) led by Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, Latvia's First-Latvia's Way (LPP-LC), the Farmers' Union and the Greens (ZZS) and the Union for the Fatherland and Freedom (TB/LNNK) was elected on 31st May in the first round of voting winning 58 votes against 39 for his adversary, former President of the Constitutional Court, Aivars Endzins, supported by the Harmony Centre (SC) and New Era (JL). Valdis Zatlers will officially take office on 7th July next when the 2nd term in office of the present President, Vaira Vike-Freiberga expires.

The Belgians are being called to renew the two Chambers of Parliament on 10th June, ie the 71 Senators and 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives. The election will take place according to an integral proportional highest average system. The main issue will be to decide who Prime Minister will be. Traditionally this post goes to the leader of the main political party which provides the Dutch speakers with an advantage. Just one week before the election, Yves Leterme, President of the Dutch Christian Democrat Party (CD&V) and Minister President of Flanders, is the favourite in terms of succeeding Guy Verhofstadt (Liberals and Democrats, Open VLD). In Flanders the Christian Democrat Party which is allied to New Alliance (N-VA) is credited with 29.9% of the vote taking the lead over Vlaams Belang (VB), 20.7%, the Socialist-Spirit Party 20.4%, the Liberals and Democrats 17.3% and Groen (G) 8.4%. In Wallonia the Reform Movement is credited with 34.9% of the vote ahead of the Socialist Party 29.6%, the Humanist Democrat Centre 20.4% and Ecolo 11.7%.

The Robert Schuman Foundation represented by Jean-Dominique Giuliani and Xavier de Villepin inaugurated the first Robert Schuman Square in Albania on 31st May in the centre of the historic town of Berat, 120km south of the capital, Tirana. This visit presented an opportunity to speak in favour of European values of peace, reconciliation and co-operation between states as well as to look into the situation in Albania, Kosovo and to mention bilateral relations with several political leaders, including Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

During the 8th Conference of Foreign Ministers of the ASEM on 28th and 29th May in Hamburg it was repeated that the 45 members of the ASEM co-operation now represented 60% of world exchange, 58% of the world's population and around 50% of international economic results. The ASEM's role as the main organisation for Asia-Europe relations is therefore a decisive one, likewise its ability to influence the world order. The aims of co-operation are to enhance multi-lateralism and the quest for answers to world globalisation challenges, competitiveness, sustainable development and cultural and inter-religious dialogue.

During the conference "Work on E-justice" on 30th May in Bremen more than 500 experts and other interested parties from Europe, the USA and Asia discussed and analysed the opportunities that have arisen from the cross border use of ITCs in justice. "Modern information and communication technology makes the justice system more efficient and helps citizens and businesses seeking justice get help more quickly and easily". In a European area of freedom, security and justice with porous borders, information technology-based support of the justice sector must not end at the internal borders," indicated German Justice Minister, Brigitte Zypries.

On 30th May the Middle East Quartet, consisting of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States of America and the Russian Federation, met to discuss the escalation in violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The Quartet urged a return to the cease-fire. The Quartet decided to meet the parties to the conflict in the region before the end of June. The dialogue with the Arab League will also be continued.

On 29th May the European Union Troika met a delegation from Japan to discuss relations between the EU and Japan, their close strategic partners and topical issues with the upcoming EU-Japan summit on 5th June in Berlin in mind. They expressed their concern about stability and development in Central Asia and accepted responsibility for reconstruction and stabilisation in Afghanistan.

On 30th May the Commission adopted a White Paper entitled "A European Strategy for Health Problems associated with Nutrition, Excess Weight and Obesity," stressing the importance of enabling consumers to make informed choices, ensuring that healthy options are available; it calls upon the food industry to work on reformulating recipes, in particular to reduce levels of salt and fats. In the majority of Member States more than 50% of the adult population is overweight or obese. Furthermore, it is estimated that 21,748,312 million children are overweight in the EU with this figure growing by 400,000 each year.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso promised on 31st May to provide the World Fund against AIDS, tuberculosis and paludism with 100 million euro in 2007. He suggested to add 300 million euro to this sum over the next three years. The total contribution made by the EU to the World Fund would therefore reach 400 million over a four year period.

On 31st May on the World Day without Tobacco the Commission launched a personalised e-mail aid service, "web-coaching", designed to help people who want to stop smoking. As soon as they register people receive mails at regular intervals to help them in their bid to stop smoking. In the first month the mail is daily. After the second month reminders help to check and see whether the person has not abandoned and for coaches to provide real advice to improve their life as a former smoker.

The German Presidency of the EU "welcomed" the arrest of the former Bosno-Serb General Zdravko Tolimir and "said it was pleased with the co-operation that was taking place between the security authorities of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia." The EU has therefore decided to take up its rapprochement negotiations with Serbia as a result of the arrest of the Bosno-Serb war criminal Zdravko Tolimir said European Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn. "The Commission will decide on the date of the next round of discussions after the prosecutor of the ICTY Carla del Ponte returns from Serbia," he added.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came to an agreement on 31st May in Madrid on the importance of all 27 Member States concluding rapidly on a treaty to reform the European Union which has been at stalemate for the last two years. "A country which voted "yes", a country which voted "no" share the same analysis and the same desire (...) Europe must move forwards and it must not remain static. We must work fast because Europe has already lost a great deal of time. A new treaty is required the content of which we almost agree on and which will free the situation," indicated Nicolas Sarkozy. José Luis Zapatero, whose country ratified the European Constitution with 76% of the vote in favour on 20th February 2005 stressed that, "one of the objectives we must agree on in this treaty is the immigration policy." He did however insist on mentioning a certain number of "vital points which have to be included in the text": the qualified majority, the reform of the running of the European Council, the stable presidency of the EU and a European Foreign Minister.

On 30th May the President of the Italian Council, Romano Prodi met President Lech Kaczynski and his brother Jaroslaw, the Prime Minister. He spoke of major differences in points of view after the meeting with regard to institutional reform even though he had tried to convince them that a strong Europe was in the interest of all Member States. But the Polish Prime Minister said that Poland would prepared to "die" in order to push through its views on the new European treaty. Just three weeks before the European Council Poland still wants to modify the voting system in the European organisations and hopes that the EU will adopt a new way of calculation based on the square root of the number of inhabitants (in millions) of each Member State which Poland believes is more in its interest.

Finland would like a rapid renegotiation of the European Treaty and minimum changes made to its content, in line with the position adopted by the German presidency of the EU. Finland is working for a possible intergovernment conference responsible for renegotiating the text and for it to have "clear instructions and a short time span."

On 1st June Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis stressed that his country would like to see the European Constitutional treaty rapidly put back on track with as "little change made to the text as possible." After an interview with his Hungarian counterpart Ferenc Gyurcsany he believed that the stalemate on the Constitution that came after the French and Dutch "NO" in 2005 should be resolved according to a detailed agenda so that "everything can be finalised by the next European elections in 2009".

On 28th May French President Nicolas Sarkozy received the President of the Italian Council, Romano Prodi, to discuss institutional reform. Romano Prodi stressed that the discussions had mainly focussed on "what we would like to see mentioned and we totally agree on the main points." The two leaders are in favour of the main institutional changes such as the reform of the voting rules and an increase in the use of the qualified majority vote, the establishment of a permanent presidency of the EU and the creation of the position of European Foreign Minister. "We hope to see a European Union that is not paralysed by veto rights. We do not want to suffer the problem of the unanimity vote," indicated the joint press release that came after the meeting.

On 30th May Spanish government head, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Dutch Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende said they were optimistic about the chances of coming to an agreement on a new treaty in spite of the differences within the EU. Jan Peter Balkenende said he was in favour of an "amended treaty (...) that will allow us to adopt certain aspects of the constitutional treaty and to modify or amend the previous text." He recalled the Dutch position: "We want national parliaments to play a greater role and that criteria for new members to the EU be taken into account." The Spanish government leader is in favour of the maintenance of a major part of the Constitution notably with regard to community competence in the area of justice, police, diplomacy and immigration.

French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet spoke on 1st June of the creation of a Mediterranean Union when addressing leaders of the Mediterranean Forum, an informal organisation that rallies eleven States from the North and South of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Eastern TGV that was inaugurated on 15th March will start running on 10th June. It will offer over 130 new direct connections and will link four European countries together: France, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Paris will also be linked via the highspeed connection - (320km/h)- to 20 towns in the East of France and ten other international destinations.

On 4th June in an interview that was published in several newspapers Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his opposition to Washington's deployment of an anti-missile defence system in Central Europe and threatened to direct Russian missiles towards Western Europe. "If American nuclear power extends over European territory then we shall have to take up new targets in Europe (...) It is up to our military to define those targets and choose between balistic and cruise missiles (...) We want to re-balance defence instruments with more effective instruments of attack but we know that this may very well re-start an arms race which we would however not be responsible for," declared the Russian President.

According to the first estimates published by Eurostat on 1st June Euro area and EU27 GDP both grew by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2007, compared with the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2006, growth rates were +0.9% in both the euro area and the EU27. During the first quarter of 2007, household final consumption expenditure decreased by 0.1% in the euro area and remained unchanged in the EU27. Investments grew by 2.5% in the euro area and by 2.6% in the EU27. Exports rose by 0.3% in both zones (after +3.5% and +2.9%). Imports grew by 1.6% in the euro area and by 1.3% in the EU.

According to figures published by Eurostat on June 1st Euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment stood at 7.1% in April 2007, compared with 7.2% in March. It was 8.0% in April 2006. The EU27 unemployment rate was also 7.1% in April 2007, compared with 7.2% in March. It was 8.0% in April 2006. In April 2007, the lowest rates were registered in the Netherlands (3.3%), Denmark (3.4% in March) and Ireland (4.0%). Unemployment rates were highest in Poland (11.2%) and Slovakia (10.5%). Twenty-two Member States recorded a fall in their unemployment rate over a year, four an increase and in Romania the unemployment rate was stable. The largest relative falls were observed in Estonia (6.3% to 4.7%), Slovenia (6.4% to 4.8%) and Slovakia (13.8% to 10.5%). The highest relative increases were registered in Hungary (7.3% to 8.2%) and Portugal (7.6% to 8.0%).

The annual bathing water report presented by the European Commission on 31st May reveals that the large majority of bathing sites across the European Union met EU hygiene standards in 2006. 96% of coastal bathing areas and 89% of bathing sites in rivers and lakes are in compliance with the mandatory values. In 2006, 21,094 bathing areas were monitored in all.

The statistics published on 31st May by the European Commission show that the number of counterfeit or pirated articles seized on the external borders of the EU in 2006 increased significantly in spite of the action taken by the customs authorities which has never been so vigorous. More than 36,000 seizures were undertaken ie an increase of 40% in comparison with 2005. Customs officers seized over 250 million counterfeit or pirate articles in 2006 in comparison with 75 million in 2005 and 100 million in 2004. Counterfeit medicines, cigarettes and other products likely to cause serious damage to consumer health continue to be produced en masse. Smugglers continuously swap itinerary in order to market products, with the use of the internet and the transportation of small quantities of goods via airplane or post - all factors that increase the problems encountered by customs officers in their work.