On 10th October in Berlin there will be another meeting organised by the Rhineland Club, a Franco-German movement created by Joachim Bitterlich and Jean-Dominique Giuliani. The two main themes will be : the EU's economic policy and relations between the EU and Russia. The meeting will host German Home Minister Wolfgang Schäuble as honorary guest with the support of the Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer Foundations.

Since October 4th the review Europe's World, written by Friends of Europe, is available in French. This edition was published thanks to the support of the Robert Schuman Foundation and the French Foreign Affairs Ministry. It includes several interesting articles on the future of the EU.

The final results of the early general elections that took place on 30th September in the Ukraine were published on 5th October. The Regions Party led by Viktor Yanukovich came out ahead with 34.7% of the vote, followed by the Yulia Timochenko Block which made an incredible breakthrough taking 30.71%. In third position came Our Ukraine-Self-Defence, the party led by President Viktor Yushenko, which won 14.15% of the vote. Two other parties will be represented in the Verkhovna Rada, the only chamber in Parliament : the Communist Party led by Petro Simonenko which won 5.39% of the vote and the Volodimir Litvine Block which won 3.96%. Together the Orange forces (Timoshenko/Yushenko) have won 44.86%, versus 39.76% for the Regions Party which is allied to the Communist Party. The Orange camp will probably be called on to form the next government coalition.

The Robert Schuman Foundation together with the Department for Research on Modern Criminal Threats at the University Paris II is organising an international conference on the theme of "Europe and modern criminal threats" on 30th October in Brussels. The most qualified European and world experts will speak at the conference. To take part please enrol beforehand.

On 14th and 15th October the Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Jean-Dominique Giuliani will take part in a Conference in Riga, "Europe at a crossroads: the Riga-Bucarest Agenda." This conference will focus on the main challenges now facing NATO and the EU Member States. Mr Giuliani will speak on the question of borders and values of the European project.

On 1st and 2nd October EU Justice and Home Ministers discussed the issue of terrorism. During this informal meeting ministers decided to review the progress made in the EU's action plan in this area. This meeting comes just after the discovery of various terrorist plans to attack different Member States.

The writing of the draft reform treaty on the EU and the treaty establishing the European Community has now been completed and the text has been available since 5th October. The draft will be examined by Heads of State and Government at the European Council on 18th and 19th October.

MEPs who were responsible for observing the Ukrainian general elections on 30th September last said that they believed these took place in a relatively satisfactory manner according to international standards. They asked political leaders to use the election results to consolidate the country's political stability.

The first inter-parliamentary meeting on climate change was organised by the European Parliament and the Portuguese Assembleia da Republica on 1st and 2nd October. European and national representatives acknowledged that it was still possible to act in the fight against climate change both on a European and international level. The EU, which is responsible for 14% of the world's CO2 emissions must be an example to the rest of the world. It must ensure its energy security and put forward a development model based in part on renewable energies.

The Petitions Committee at the European Parliament adopted unanimously the report written by Carlos José Iturgaiz Angulo (PPE-DE, ES). In 2006 1016 citizen petitions were received in which there were complaints about the non-respect of community law. MEPs insisted that this is a fundamental right and called on the Commission to prosecute Member States systematically if there was an infraction. They also called for enhanced co-operation between the institutions, notably the Council and the Ombudsman in order to respond adequately to requests made by petitioners.

A survey undertaken on 4th October by the 27 national telecom regulators – united in the European Regulators Group (ERG) – in collaboration with the European Commission shows that mobile telephone users making calls abroad have reduced their bills by 60%. The establishment of a eurotarif (roaming tarif per minute which should not exceed 49 cents/euro (excluding VAT), for a call made abroad and 24 cents/euro for a call received from abroad) is going ahead according to plan. Operators have been quick to apply the new tarifs and have committed to transparency with regard to their prices.

On 4th October the Commission published its quarterly report on the euro area. After a slowdown in the second quarter, growth in the euro-area economy is expected to remain robust during the second half of the year. Commission forecasts announce growth of 2.5% for the entire year. The report also shows that the euro zone economy is healthy and that it has been able to weather an increasing amount of turbulence. However there are increased risks caused by the financial crisis and the possiblity of greater slowing in the USA.

On 5th October the Commission published its 2007 edition of the European annual scoreboard of companies' spending on research and development (R&D). It shows that corporate R&D has increased by 10%, with EU-based companies increasing their R&D investment by 7.4%. This compares to 5.3% growth reported in the 2006 edition. The scoreboard also shows an upward trend in companies' profitability all over the world, reaching 11.6% (versus 12.9% for American companies). The top EU company is DaimlerChrysler of Germany with 5.2 billion euros. The world's biggest investor in R&D in the 2007 Scoreboard is Pfizer of the US, with 5.8 billion euros. The "pharmaceutical and biotechnology" sector is the leading beneficiary of this investment. The chemicals and aerospace industries are typified by a significant recovery in their R&D investments.

On 4th October the EU's High Representative for the CFSP spoke at a hearing with the Committee for the White Paper on French National Defence and Security. In the face of new international strategic challenges (dangers that have arisen because of globalisation, the consubstantiation of domestic and foreign security and even insecurity with regard to energy) Javier Solana advised on the enhancement of the CFSP thanks to the pooling of capabilities, responses to natural disasters and the sharing of information.

On 1st October during the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council Member States agreed on the completion of the internal market of postal services. The text includes the total opening of postal serivce markets by 31st December 2010 at the latest. However some Member States such as Luxembourg and Greece are exempted and can delay the application of this decision for another two years.

The Danish government is in favour of a European ban on wood, mineral and semi-precious stone imports from Burma declared the Danish Foreign Office on 5th October. Per Stig Moeller wants a European ban on investments in the petrol company Myanmar Oil as part of the increase in sanctions against the military junta in Rangoon which quashed the protest movement started by the Buddhist monks. "We want sanctions against the military junta to be enforced in the strongest possible manner. But we do not want them to affect the Burmese population," he indicated.

On 26th September French MPs approved the framework agreement with regard to the joint establishment of diplomatic missions and consular posts. The joint missions are a symbol of close co-operation and a sign of the confidence that exists between Germany and France. This initiative was launched last year by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Jacques Chirac in order to bring together in some places the embassies, consular establishments and cultural institutes of both countries. Until now both countries shared buildings for their missions in Cap Verde, Bosnia Herzegovina and in Liberia. Sharing the same buildings is planned for diplomatic missions in Maputo (Mozambique) and Dhaka (Bangladesh), for consular missions in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and for the German and French cultural institutes in Moscow (Russia).

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushenko received French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 5th October. They spoke of the political situation in the Ukraine in the wake of the general elections; they also discussed bilateral relations and the opportunities for the development of relations between the Ukraine and the EU.

On 4th October the Polish government finally accepted to invite OSCE observers to the early general elections on 21st October. At first Poland had been reticent with regard to receiving OSCE observers since the Polish government believes that its presence meant that Poland was being considered as "a third-world" country and that Poland's "democratic credibility" was being questioned.

Poland is about to become a member of the International Energy Agency which accepted its membership request on 3rd October. The Director General of the IEA, Nobuo Tanaka said that the country's geographic position will enhance the IEA's presence in central and eastern Europe. He stressed the role that Poland played in the transit of hydrocarbons and in energy co-operation in the region. Poland is the biggest consumer and producer of energy in Central Europe and the third largest OECD coal producer.

On 5th October the European Central Bank published its annual report on the EU's banking structures. It reviews the main structural developments in the European banking sector from 2006 to mid-2007. It also includes two studies on liquidity risk management of cross-border banking groups in the EU and the distribution channels in retail banking.

In August 2007 compared with July 2007, the industrial producer price index rose by 0.1% in the euro area, while EU27 prices remained unchanged. In July, prices increased by 0.3% in both the euro area and the EU27. the highest increases were registered in Bulgaria (+1.5%), Luxembourg (+1.4%) and Ireland (+0.7%). The largest decreases were recorded in the Netherlands (-0.8%), Finland and the United Kingdom (both -0.6%).

According to figures published by Eurostat on 2nd October the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.9% in August 2007, unchanged compared to July. It was 7.8% in August 2006. The EU27 unemployment rate was 6.7% in August 2007, compared with 6.8% in July. It was 7.8% in August 2006. In August 2007, the lowest rates were registered in Denmark and the Netherlands (both 3.3%), and the highest in Slovakia (11.1%) and Poland (9.1%). In comparison in August 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.6% in the USA and 3.8% in Japan.

On 5th October Eurostat has published its regional yearbook covering the 268 regions of the EU. This year it also covers the countries which belong to EFTA (Iceland, Liechstenstein, Norway and Switzerland). The publication includes chapters on population, GDP, household accounts, labour market, labour productivity, urban statistics, science, technology and innovation, business, transport, tourism, education and agriculture.

According to a poll IPSOS published on 4th October and undertaken amongst 1,414 managers in seven European countries, 49% of French directors have a negative bias against Europe in comparison with 44% of their British counterparts. 27% of French entrepreneurs are mistrustful and 27% are worried about what Europe might bring. Only 31% of them want to develop their sales in other European countries and only 14% intend to establish a branch in another Union country. The directors in the countries which are traditionally "Euro-friendly", with Italy and Germany in the lead, are more trusting.

On 1st October the Friends of Europe published a report entitled "Water-Security - Does Europe have a Strategy?" This work is an anthology of the proceedings of a seminar organised in June on this subject which brought toegether political leaders, NGO's and industrialists.