On 8th February the first round of the Czech presidential election will take place. The President of the Republic is appointed by secret ballot by the members of both Houses of Parliament: the 200 members of the Chamber of Representatives and the 81 Senators. The two candidates running are the present Head of State Vaclav Klaus and Jan Svejnar,who notably has the support of former President Vaclav Havel. Jan Svejnar, unknown to the public just a few weeks ago, is growing in popularity, rising by 15 points since November 2007 to reach 45% amongst the Czechs. According to a poll by STEM, published on 30th January 55% of the Czechs would vote for Jan Svejnar, 45% for Vaclav Klaus if they were to elected the President of the Republic. A poll by SC&C published two days prior to the latter revealed that 57% of Czechs hoped that Vaclav Klaus, the outgoing President would be re-elected, versus 43% for Jan Svejnar.

Whilst Hungary and Slovenia and Malta have already ratified the Lisbon Treaty and France is about to ratify it this week the Robert Schuman Foundation is keeping an up-to-date map of how the ratifications are moving along; there is also a table explaining the ratification procedure per country.

On 31st January the 27 Ministers responsible for equality between men and women discussed the need for balanced participation on the part of men and women in the political decision making process. They insisted on the enhancement of the role and position of young women with a view to achieving equality between men and women. According to the most recent studies the average level of female representation in Member States' Parliaments is 23% in comparison with 33% in the European Parliament. With regard to this the Robert Schuman Foundation proposes a table show how women are represented in parliaments and governments in the 27 Member States.

On 31st January MEPs adopted the report by Fiona Hall (ADLE, UK), 592 votes in favour 26 against and 30 abstentions, with regard to the European Commission's Action Plan for Energy Efficiency. This report highlights that the 20% improvement in energy efficiency by 2020 "is totally feasible from a technical and economic" point of view if the Commission and the Member States improve their legislation in that domain. Drastic reductions in CO2 emissions are necessary to prevent uncontrollable climate change. MEPs believe that a more efficient use of energy will also enable a reduction of the EU's dependence on energy imports.

On 31st January the European Parliament gave its final approval to the reform of the postal services in the European Union. This vote confirms a wide political consensus on the way to follow with a view to a total opening of the postal markets in the European Union to the competition by 1st January 2011. The Commission will help Member States to implement the new directive and will play an active role by following the development of the market closely to ensure that citizens and companies in the European Union benefit from quality postal services as planned for in the directive.

Many Roma, who are now members of the European Union after the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, continue to suffer discrimination and the effects of anti-Gypsy propaganda put forward by extremists. On 31st January MEPs adopted a resolution by 510 votes in favour, 36 against and 67 abstentions that calls for extra work to integrate Roma by using positive measures in terms of accommodation, healthcare, education and employment. Of the 12 to 15 million Roma living in Europe nearly 10 million live in the EU. MEPs believe that since the Rom situation - traditonally part of society in a many European countries and who make their contribution - is quite different from that of other national European minorities, specific measures Europe-wide are justified.

On 30th January the Commission examined the updated stability programmes of France and Italy along with the convergence programmes of Romania and Slovakia. This will require France to cut its public expenditure substantially – currently among the highest in the European Union – faster than envisaged. Structural reforms will also be crucial to raise potential growth and sustain the budgetary consolidation process. Italy succeeded in bringing its budget deficit to well below 3% in 2007. It should build on that result to reach a balanced budget within the programme period and to put its public debt firmly on a descending path. Romania has to reduce its public deficit and Slovakia has to control inflation with a view to adopting the euro next year.

On 31st January the Commission issued warnings to 14 Member States that have not fully transposed European regulations prohibiting discrimination in the work place (in terms of religion, beliefs, age, handicap and sexual preference). The Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania have two months to justfiy the national transposition of this European legislation which was adopted in 2000. The first eleven Member States have received "reasoned opinions", the second state in the infringement procedure that can then lead to an appearance before the Court of Justice if the answer is deemed unsatisfactory.

European citizens are being called to vote on the design of the commemorative two euro coin that will be launced at the beginning of 2009 in 15 countries of the euro zone in celebration of the 10 anniversary of the creation of the single currency. Five designs have been pre-selected after a competition organised within the institutions responsible for making the European Union's currency. You are therefore invited to vote on your preference for the commemorative two euro coin.

On 31st of January, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the content of a European "Small Business Act". Its objective is to put small and medium sized enterprises at the forefront of decision-making in the EU and to introduce concrete measures to unlock the SMEs' growth potential. The preparation of a "Small Business Act" for Europe is one of the key measures announced in the Commission's package for the next cycle of the Growth and Jobs Strategy adopted last December. The consultation will be open until the end of March. A Public hearing on the Small Business Act will take place on 6th February in Brussels.

On 31st January the Commission announced the launch of the new "Consumer Market Watch" process which investigates how markets in various sectors of the economy perform from a consumer perspective. There are two steps to the new process. The first is a comprehensive screening of retail markets against 5 key consumer indicators - prices, complaints, switching rates, satisfaction and safety - for patterns which could indicate market malfunctioning. These irregularities – which may be indicative of practices which distort consumer choice and hinder competition at the retail level - can then trigger the second phase of the process, an in-depth, targeted consumer market investigation and corrective actions. The far reaching new Consumer Market Watch process also benchmarks the strength of the consumer environment in different Member States and the degree of integration of the retail internal market. The process will complement the monitoring and analysis proposed in the recent Single Market Review.

The 27 Foreign Ministers decided on 28th January to launch the military transition operation in Chad and in the Central African Republic. The EUFOR/Chad/RCA mission authorised by UN Security Council resolution 1778 and which has been welcomed by the authorities in both African states will aim to ensure the protection of civilians, particularly the displaced and refugees. It will facilitate humanitarian activities and will enable the protection of UN personnel and installations. It will comprise 3,700 men. In all 14 Member States will be represented in the field under the command of Irish General Nash. The mission has however been delayed given the recent developments in Chad.

Following the approval of the 27 Foreign Ministers on 28th January Switzerland is due to enter the Schengen Area on 1st November 2008. Switzerland approved this membership by referendum in 2005 and became the third State that is not a member of the European Union to join the area of free movement that presently comprises 24 countries (22 Union Member States plus Norway and Iceland). Before joining Switzerland still has to undertake several legal changes to adapt the laws of the cantons and to make investments to bring its airports up to European standards. The abolition of the land and air borders implies a joint policy of visas and a police information database, the Schengen Information System (SIS).

On 31st January the Council approved the new safety rules with regard to air transport. The regulation is in particular aimed at extending the remit of the European Aviation Safety Agency. The new regulation gives the agency new rulemaking responsibilities in the field of air operations, flight crew and the oversight of third-country aircraft in the Community. A flexible sanction system has also been adopted in order to punish companies which do not abide by these safety rules.

On 29th January the Spanish Constitional Court approved the law establishing parity between men and women in the elections, thereby rejecting a appeal made by the People's Party. With 10 votes against 2 it indicated that the law introducing relative parity of the sexes on the candidates' lists in the elections did not constitute discrimination in favour of women since it obliged political parties to present a maximum of 60% of candidates from either one or the other sex.

On 30th January during the UMP Convention on Europe several European personalities were in attendance including: Mariano Rajoy from Spain, Gianfranco Fini from Italy, Bronislaw Geremek from Poland and former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga. To close the day of debate French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both promised mutual support to take European issues forwards together in the face of the challenges globalisation.

To prevent the development of the EUFOR, which has the responsiblity of helping the civilian population in Sudan the government of the latter country has encouraged rebel movements to attack Chad. The capital of Chad, N-Djamena is the centre of terrible fighting. 1500 Western citizens, mainly Europeans are under the protection of the French army (1,600 men including the special forces) which has not yet been involved in the fighting but which has undertaken their evacuation.

Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern re-iterated his support of the Lisbon Treaty on 31st January stressing that the text was balanced and pragmatic. He recalled all of the advantages that Ireland has benefited from since joining the European Union and he concluded by indicating the firm support of the treaty was a way for Ireland to confirm its attachment to the European project.

The President of the Italian Senate, Franco Marini was asked by the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, to look into the possibility of forming an interim government to modify the electoral laws before another election is organised. On 31st January Franco Marini started talks with political leaders in view of coming to a satisfactory consensus. Discussions are to last until 4th February. Former President of the Italian Council, Silvio Berlusconi has already said he did not want to participate in the discussions on the reform of elections and since the resignation of Romano Prodi he has been asking for early elections.

According to Eurostat figures published on 31st January the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 7.2% in December 2007, unchanged compared with November. It was 7.8% in December 2006. The European Union unemployment rate was 6.8% in December 2007, compared to 6.9% in November. It was 7.6% in December 2006. In December 2007, the lowest rates were registered in the Netherlands (2.9%) and Denmark (3.1%), and the highest in Slovakia (10.8%) and Spain (8.6%).

The European Commission has published a study on the conveyancing services market in the European Union. This study leads to the conclusion that consumers benefit from greater choice and that overall the services on deregulated markets are cheaper for an equivalent quality. The conveyancing market is valued at 17 billion euros per year; all types of improvement in efficiency that come from deregulation will allow consumers to save millions of euros each year. The Commission is inviting Member States to look into the study's results as well as evaluate and modify national legislation that limits competition and the free movement of services on the single market.

The 'Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik' (German Society for Foreign Policy) has published a study by Martin Koopmann and Stephan Martens entitled "Das kommende Europa" (The future Europe). This publication draws up a panorama of how the European Union has developed since the signature of the Rome Treaty, notably in terms of the leadership that has grown from the Franco-German couple.