On 17th February next 515,000 Cypriots are being called to vote to elect the President of the Republic who also undertakes the role of Prime Minister. The Cypriot President is elected by direct universal suffrage for a five year term in office. Five candidates are running: 73 year-old Tassos Papadopoulos - outgoing president; 60 year-old Demetris Christofias, chairman of the Chamber of Representatives, the only Chamber in Parliament; Ioannis Kasoulidès, MEP; Marios Matsakis, MEP; Costas Themistocleous, former Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment Minister. The issue of the island's reunification, that was suspended after the failure of the referendum on 24th April 2004, is foremost in the electoral campaign. In addition to this the Turkish community living in the southern part of the island will be allowed to vote in the presidential election for the very first time. It is obligatory to vote.

On 19th February next 2.3 million Armenians are being called to ballot to appoint their President of the Republic; he is elected for five years by direct universal suffrage. His mandate is renewable once. Robert Kotcharian, in office since 1998, cannot run for a third mandate since he was re-elected on 5th March 2003. Nine candidates are running including Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian (Republican Party, HHK) and former President (1991-1998), Levon Ter-Petrossian. If none of the candidates is elected in the first round, a second round will be organised on 4th March.

As the European Commission publishes the Energy and Climate package the Robert Schuman Foundation is organising a debate on future energy mix options on Tuesday 22nd January in Brussels. All issues will be addressed including nuclear energy. During the debate a new "Note" will be presented by the Foundation entitled "Reviving energy production in Europe: an environmental, industrial and political challenge."

The Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Ebert Foundations together with the Heinrich Heine House are organising a conference entitled "After the Lisbon Treaty: the European Union's new political and social stakes. What is the Franco-German approach?" Jean-Dominique Giuliani, chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation will take part in this debate together with Andreas Schockenhoff MP CDU, and Angelica Schwall-Düren MP SPD and Jean Quatremer (journalist).

On 15th January the Robert Schuman Foundation organised an evening debate together with the MEDEF on the theme of "Are there any plumbers left in Poland?" The debate focussed on questions concerning demography, immigration and the borders of Europe. The video of the conference is on-line on the Foundation site.

On 18th January Slovenian Prime Minister and President of the European Council Janez Jansa attended the ceremony that introduced the euro into the Republic of Cyprus. He emphasised that the introduction of the euro comprised a major and difficult project for each country. He lauded Cyprus on its successful adoption of the single European currency, talking of his satisfaction with the stability of public finances and the country's excellent macro-economic results. In his opinion the euro represents a stable, respectable currency whose effect on international economic cooperation is a positive one, thereby contributing to the creation of many jobs. Moreover it offers a number advantages both for the economy and consumers.

As part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Bader Hassoun spoke to MEPs on 15th January. He placed the respect of human dignity at the heart of his speech insisting on the need to reach a peaceful settlement to the situation in Palestine. European Parliament President, Hans-Gert Pöttering assured that other meetings would follow.

On 16th January MEPs adopted the report concerning the future European strategy on children's rights. This report includes measures to fight against paedophile pornography and internet violence. It suggests the creation of an early warning system on child abductions. With regard to adoption MEPs suggest the establishment of a community tool and recall the right of each child to have a family.

On 17th January MEPs adopted a directive opening the European consumer credit market while guaranteeing consumer protection. This directive should allow the European economy to take best advantage of the potential of a market that is believed to be worth around 800 billion euro per year. They insist on the importance of consumer information to fight against excessive debt burdens, which is a real problem. The directive grants the consumer the right to early pay off and stipulates the rules whereby the creditor can calculate the instalments he can ask of the client. The text has to be adopted by the Council in order to come into force.

Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Jansa presented the programme for the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union to MEPs on 16th January. This presidency will notably be marked by the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the new stage in the Lisbon Strategy, the environment and energy package and the situation in the Western Balkans, especially with regard to Kosovo. MEPs mainly approved the programme. President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso said he was pleased with "the consensus shown with regard to priorities" before saying that there "was a need for adequate means to achieve the ambitious environmental objectives."

On 17th January Parliament supported a project to convert Europol into an EU agency, meaning that its funding will be provided from the EU budget, its staff will become Community officials and changes to its remit will be easier, thus enabling it to respond more quickly to new crime threats. Moreover Europol's activities will no longer be limited to organised crime only. MEPs are asking however for improvements to be made in terms of data protection and democratic control, notably with regard to the exchange of data with third countries, access to the files of services of Member States, the length of time information is kept and processed and how this is protected when it emanates from private organisations. The Office will have Agency status as from January 2010.

On 17th January the first benchmark report on international roaming has been published by the European Regulators' Group. This report confirms that implementation of the roaming regulation has generally gone smoothly with a high level of compliance in all European Union Member States. This rule enables consumers to take advantage of reduced tariffs when they use their telephone abroad. The report mentions concerns that there are still no regulationswith regard to SMS and downloading; consequently costs are high and there is a lack of harmonisation. The Commission is due to look into this shortly.

On 17th January the European Union and the Ukraine came to an agreement to open the way for the Ukraine's accession to the WTO. European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Hryhory Nemyrya settled the final details that were still causing difficulties. The European Union is the Ukraine's leading trade partner. In 2006 it absorbed 25% of its exports and provided 42% of its imports. The Ukraine will officially join the WTO after the agreement has been ratified thereby opening the way to a full free trade agreement with the European Union.

On 14th January the European Commission decided to initiate two formal antitrust investigations against Microsoft Corp concerning two separate categories of alleged infringements of EC Treaty rules on abuse of a dominant market position. The first case where proceedings have been opened is in the field of interoperability in relation to a complaint by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS). The second area where proceedings have been opened is in the field of tying of separate software products following inter alia a complaint by Opera. The Commission still has no proof of Microsoft's guilt however.

The European Commission via the Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas announced that it would continue its infringement procedure for Italy's lack of commitment in the waste crisis. In effect over 100,000 tonnes of waste, notably toxic in nature, has been accumulating in Naples and the area of Campania since December. The Commissioner recalled that excuses with regard to the role played by organised crime in this affair should not paralyse local authority action since they are still responsible for the situation. He called for the reorganisation of public policy management.

On 16th January in an attempt to ensure access to more efficient, cheaper medicines the European Commission launched an enquiry into competition in the pharmaceutical sector. It announced that a series of inspections would be undertaken in a "certain number of companies specialised in innovative or generic pharmaceutical products."

On 11th January 2008 after four months of negotiations social partners (management and unions) reached an agreement on the modernisation of the labour market. The draft agreement may establish a "French type of flexicurity." With regard to this the Foundation has published a study entitled "Flexicurity - a European Revolution."

On 16th January 2008 the French National Assembly adopted the revision of the Constitution which was vital for the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty (acknowledgement of new prerogatives granted by the Lisbon Treaty to National Parliaments and the introduction of a procedure into the Constitution whereby Parliament can, in certain circumstances, challenge the modification of the adoption rules of some European acts). The draft constitutional law was approved by 304 votes in favour, 77 against and 100 abstentions. The Senate will examine the law on 29th January before it is finally adopted during a Congress meeting in Versailles on 4th February by a 3/5 majority of the votes cast. With regard to this the Robert Schuman Foundation has published 10 information sheets, both in French and English, to provide a better understanding of the Lisbon Treaty.

Serb President Boris Tadic said on 16th January to the Security Council that his country would never acknowledge the independence of Kosovo and that it would maintain its territorial integrity and sovereignty by all possible democratic, legal and diplomatic means. He did however say that Serbia would never use violence or war. He called on the Security Council to look at the Serb point of view and to continue negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, since Serbia was ready to take these up again immediately. During the Security Council meeting no agreement was found on the future status of Kosovo. Kosovar Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci indicated that "Kosovo was ready to declare its independence in the near future."

The first Alliance of Civilisations Forum ended on 16th January in Madrid and enabled the practical implementation of this new UN tool that is mainly designed to remove misunderstandings between the western and the Muslim world. Twelve projects, agreements and workshops were announced by the High Representative for the Alliance of Civilisaitons, former Portuguese president, Jorge Sampaio.

On 15th January Eurostat published the new version of "European Business - Facts and Figures" presenting a wide range of data on European business. The study presents the latest available statistics from a wide selection of statistical sources describing, for each sector, production and employment, country specialisation and regional distribution, cost structures, productivity and profitability, the importance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), external trade etc. It emerges for example that there are more women than men in the textile industry and that there are more young people working in restaurants and hotels.

According to Eurostat figures published on 16th January the annual inflation level lay at 3.1% in December 2007 in the euro area, unchanged in comparison with November and 3.2% in the European Union in comparison with 3.1% in November. In December 2007 the lowest annual rates were observed in the Netherlands (1.6%), Finland (1.9%) and the UK (2.1%) and the highest levels were seen in Latvia (14%), Bulgaria (11.6%) and Estonia (9.7%).

According to the first estimate published by Eurostat on 17th January for the euro area trade balance with the rest of the world in November 2007 gave a 2.6 bn euro surplus, compared with +5.2 bn in November 2006. The October 2007 balance was +5.4 bn, compared with +2.4 bn in October 2006. In November 2007 compared with October 2007, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 0.3% and imports by 0.5%. With regard to the European Union the first estimate for the November 2007 extra-European Union trade balance was a deficit of 16.8 bn euro, compared with -12.4 bn in November 2006. With regard to the European Union the largest increases were recorded for exports to Russia (+25%), India (+20%), Brazil (+17%), China and Norway (both +13%), and for imports from China (+21%), Brazil (+19%), India (+16%) and Turkey (+13%).

The Bruegel Institute has published a study "Coming of Age: Report on the Euro Area", written by Philippe Aghion, Alan Ahearne, Marek Belka, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Jürgen von Hagen, Lars Heikensten and André Sapir. This publication looks into economic results in the euro area and puts forwards ideas in six key areas of the economy.

With the UN Conference on Climate Change in view in Denmark in December 2009 the Confederation of Danish Industries has just published a study entitled "Bright green - Danish technologies for sustainable growth". This publication explains how Danish industry has become a pioneer in developing sustainable energy solutions and how it hopes to become a model of the entire world. The ecologist school of thought "bright green" is a new trend that believes that the development of society must involve the development of new technologies to enable the conciliation of sustainable development and economic growth.

The Danish Institute for International Relations (DISS) has just translated a study on the European Energy Policy into English entitled "Trade-offs in European Energy Policy". The three authors believe that the present internal market and rules with regard to competition provide an instant framework for a European energy market. They are therefore against some trends that aim to renationalise industries and which lean towards protectionism. The European Commission is to publish its 'Energy and Climate Package' on 23rd January and energy will be on the agenda of the European Council in March 2008.

Until 29th February the Musei Civici Venenziani are presenting an exhibition dedicated to "Spheres of the Heavens, Spheres of the Earth" (16th-20th century). 142 objects from the Correr Museum, the National Marciana Library and work form private collections provide an original perception of the history of art and science via cartography.