On 6th November Jean-Dominique Giuliani, Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation will take part in a conference on the theme of "France, Europe and Globalisation". He will speak during the session dedicated to "Libres échanges ou justes échangés."

A coalition bringing together Germany, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, along with Norway, New Zealand and some American and Canadian states announced the creation of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP)on 29th October. This intergovernmental forum's task will be to reflect on problems related to greenhouse gases. The forum hopes to enable a global solution to climate change by the establishment of joint initiatives.

On 30th October the European Commission in association with Eurotoques, the network of leading chefs in Europe decided to make 8th November "European Day of Healthy Food and Cooking". In 2005 14 million children were considered obese, 22 million in 2007. The fight against obesity has become a public health priority for the European Union. The day is designed to teach children the basics of about healthy, balanced diets.

The 27 Environment Ministers met on 30th October in Luxembourg and approved a resolution on climate change. The European Union's aim is to see international negotiations on the climate which are planned for 3rd-14th December in Bali to result in commitments by all developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. They also acknowledged the dramatic increase in water shortages and drought in Europe and called on the Commission and Member States to increase work to apply existing directives. The President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso brought together the consultative group on energy and climate change on 29th October to look into future challenges.

According to figures published by the Federal Employment Agency on 30th October Germany witnessed a decrease in its unemployment level in October. For the first time in 12 years the number of those looking for work dropped below the psychological barrier of 3.5 million. It rose to 3,434 million ie 8.2% of the working population (0.2%). This decrease in the number of unemployed (-650,000 in one year and -1.1 million in two years) is the sign of a structural recovery. The young are amongst those to benefit, since the number of young unemployed has dropped by 35% in two years. For the first time the number of workers has risen above 40 million reaching 40,18 million ie 672,000 more than a year ago; these figures were calculated by the Federal Statistics Office.

On 2nd November the candidate for the position of Prime Minister in Belgium, Yves Leterme, called on his negotiation partners to solve the government crisis and assume their responsibilities; the most sensitive issues had to be addressed this week. Negotiators have now come to agreement in principle on eight main themes but discussions were delayed until this week with regard to sensitive matters notably the so-called "community" issues (relations between Flemish and French speakers, the sharing of power between the regions and the Federal State) which Yves Leterme initially came up against in August.

The young centre-right party GERB won the local elections against the socialists in power by a narrow margin; GERB candidates became mayor in ten major regions including the capital Sofia said the electoral commission on Monday 5th November. GERB leader Boïko Borissov was re-elected mayor of Sofia. The Socialist Party (PSB) won in five regional centres but independents and rightwing candidates won in six other areas including the country's third biggest town, Varna, according to the official results of the two rounds of local elections which took place between 28th October and 4th November.

On 1st November and in view of the general elections on 13th November the two main candidates running for Prime Minister, ie outgoing Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Liberal Party) and Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Social Democrat Party) met for a TV debate. The Prime Minister called on his opponent to negotiate a "national compromise" on the main focus in the electoral campaign: the social protection system.

According to a survey by CSA, published by the 'Parisien' on 29th October 61% of the French say they are in favour of a referendum to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. 68% say they would vote "yes" if they were consulted on this issue.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern welcomed the major progress made in the application of the national reform programme as mentioned in the second progress report submitted to the European Commission. The report reflects the commitments made by the government in June which defines clear and ambitious objectives for the development of Ireland over the next five years. This programme plans to continue the social partnership that is working well and to work with social partners to ensure the total application of the Toward 2016 Agreement signed in June 2006.

On 1st November the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano signed a decree which will enable the expulsion of foreign citizens members of the European Union for public security reasons. This decision was adopted by the government on 31st October after an attack on a woman in the suburbs of Rome; she was found in a coma in a ditch near a campsite notably inhabited by Romanian immigrants. This decision will allow judges to expulse a citizen of the European Union for security reasons if that person is of age and has been living in Italy for under ten years. The accused cannot be thrown out for more than three years; once convicted the person has a month to leave Italy except in cases of emergency.

On 30th October Dutch Transport Minister, Camiel Eurlings announced that he wanted to allow Segways, a two-wheeld means of transport, onto the roads in the Netherlands from 2009 on. Conditions for use on the roads (cycle paths, handicapped paths) still have to be defined. In addition to this the minister has to ask the European Union for an exemption from European directives that do not acknowledge the Segway as a vehicle to be used on public highways; otherwise he has to request a modification of these directives.

The Czech Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Christian Democrat Party Jiri Cunek announced on 1st November that he would be resigning shortly from the government in the wake of accusations of abuse of social benefit allocations and corruption. Until now the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek had done everything he could to avoid this resignation for fear of weakening the coalition that was formed last year between his party (ODS), the Greens and the Christian Democrats which enjoys a very limited parliamentary majority.

On 30th October the World Bank approved a project that aims to help Romania adhere to the European Council's directive with regard to the protection of water against nitrate pollution. The project that will be financed by a loan of 50 million dollars will improve the quality of Romanian water thanks to an information campaign promoting changes in behaviour both on a community and administrative level.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on 31st October modifications to the legislation governing foreign workers. A points system is to be introduced to limit the arrival of workers from countries exterior to the European Union: only qualified workers will be allowed to enter the UK. Foreign workers entering and leaving the UK will now be counted and will have to carry an ID card.

The 59th Session of the Nordic Council was held on 30th October-1st November in Oslo, with Norway presiding this year before handing over to Finland in 2008. Climate change, social policy, research and education, globalisation and nordic co-operation in 2008 were on the agenda.

The Prime Minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nikola Spiric resigned on 30th October in protest against the measures imposed by the international community's high representative in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak to enable the running of a central government of Bosnia that is riddled with ethnic rivalry and which is unable to adopt the reforms requested by Brussels in exchange for closer work with the European Union. In his press conference the Prime Minister maintained that "twelve years after the Dayton Agreements, unfortunately Bosnia-Herzegovina is not a sovereign state. Foreigners have the exclusive power to lead this country and I believe that it is not good, either for the country or its citizens." This resignation came after the Council for the application of the peace in Bosnia's meeting in Sarajevo which had firmly supported the measures imposed by Mr Lajcak. The tripartite presidency of Bosnia has to meet to look into the situation.

Georgian opposition leaders called on 3rd November for the resignation of President Mikhail Saakachvili thereby increasing their claims before thousands of demonstrators who had gathered in front of parliament in Tbilissi. The day before the opposition had called for early general elections addressing a crowd of 50,000 demonstrators; this request was rejected by the President's party, the National Movement. This comprises the greatest wave of protest in Georgia since the Pink Revolution which brought Mikhail Saakachvili to power four years ago.

On 31st October the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) maintained that it feared it would not be able to do its monitoring work correctly to ensure the democratic nature of the general elections on 2nd December in Russia. These fears come due to the restrictions established by Moscow.

On 30th October during his visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina Secretary General Terry Davis spoke to the Parliamentary Assembly in Sarajevo of the country's commitments with regard to the Council of Europe. He called on the Bosniak political classes to build functional, effective, representative institutions that would take care of all citizens. He said that acts and not words would show when politicians were ready to take full responsibility for the government of their country.

On 29th October the European Central Bank published its 5th progress report on Target2, the second version of the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer system. These are mechanisms that central banks in European countries have to apply for the adoption of the euro. The countries in the first migration group (Germany, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria and Slovenia) are due to adopt Target2 on 19th November next. The connection with the other two migration groups is due to take place on 18th February and 19th May 2008, when all central banks and Target users should have migrated over to Target2.

The former French Economy and Finance Minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn entered office as Director General of the International Monetary Fund on 1st November in the wake of Rodrigo Rato.

According to a study published on 29th October by Eurostat - "Cultural Statistics", it was estimated that the number of cultural jobs in 2005 in the European Union lay at 4.9 million and represented 2.4% of total employment. The share of cultural jobs varies from 1.1% in Romania, 1.4% in Poland, to 3.8% in the Netherlands, 3.5% in Sweden and 3.3% in Finland. In 2005 nearly half of those working in the area of culture in the European Union were graduates of higher education.

The Foundation for Strategic Research recently published a study entitled "Evolution souhaitable du paysage industriel naval français et européen pour l'entretien des navires de guerre" (337 pages) in which authors Hélène Masson and Cédric Paulin successively look into the surface fleet of European navies then the European naval sector and the strategy adopted by industrial players in the military sector of surface ships.

The 15th Jewish Film Festival will open in Vienna between 8th and 22nd November with 73 films from 37 countries. This year will start with the showing of a Belgian-French film by Roschdy Zem (Mauvaise Foi) which tells the story of love between a Muslim and a Jewess in Paris.