The major political forces in the country - the Social Democrat (SPÖ) and the People's Party (ÖVP) - both members of the outgoing government coalition led by Alfred Gusenbauer (SPÖ) suffered badly under the electorate's hand in the general elections that were held in Austria on 28th September. The Social Democrat Party did however come out ahead and won 29.71% and 58 seats (-10 in comparison with the general elections on 1st October 2006). It was followed by the People's Part led by outgoing Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer which won 25.61% of the vote and 50 seats (-16). The Social Democrat Party achieved its highest results in Burgenland (40.42%) and in Vienna (35.78%); the People's Party rose to over 30% of the vote in the Vorarlberg (31.07%), in the Tyrol (30.87%) and in Lower Austria (31.94%).

The 27 European Agriculture Ministers who met informally from 21st to 23rd September accepted the French proposal to launch debate on the future common agricultural policy (CAP) after 2013, whilst continuing debate on the CAP healthcheck. They agreed on the need to maintain the CAP but expressed their differences with regard to its content. Mariann Fischer Boel, European Commissioner for Agriculture indicated that "the time had come for discussions to start on the future of the CAP." The European Commission should put forward proposals on the subject next year.

On 23rd September MEPs adopted two reports aiming to fight against terrorism more effectively. The consultative report by Roselyne Lefrançois (PSE, FR) focusses on the "fight against terrorism" adding three new offences to European law:public incitement to commit terrorist offences, recruitment for terrorism, and terrorist training. The changes aim to produce a balanced text that can best serve those seeking to prevent radicalisation and the emergence of potential terrorists whilst affording maximum protection to fundamental rights. In this way MEPs would like to prevent abuse on the part of the police. Martine Roure's report (PSE, FR) focusses on the protection of personal data as part of police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters; the report tries to strengthen the text by proposing that Member States exchange data that has been processed nationally.

On 26th September the European Language Day took place - the aim was to enhance the cultural heritage of European languages. In Paris the European Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban took part in the "Etats généraux du multilinguisme" organised at the Sorbonne by the French Presidency of the EU. Debate focussed on Member States' policies that aimed to enhance citizens' linguistic competence. In Brussels the Commission and the Parliament opened its doors for people to meet its translators. Events were organised in Member States.

27 European Home/Immigration Ministers met on 25th September and agreed on the European Immigration and Asylum Pact. The Pact will now be submitted to the European Council on 15th and 16th October next for adoption. They also looked into a draft directive addressing the terms of entry and residency of citizens of third countries who seek highly qualified work. This directive, called "Blue Card" aims to organise legal immigration and make the EU more attractive than the USA for the highly qualified.

On 23rd September the European Auditors' Court published an assessment report of the "Intelligent Energy for Europe" Programme between 2003 and 2006. This programme to a total of 250 million euros aims to promote energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy sources and energy diversification. The Court has made several positive observations. However it criticises the Commission for not effectively targeting its spending, inadequate assessment and monitoring and for placing too much importance on administrative costs. It has therefore drawn up some recommendations to remedy this.

On 22nd September German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded increased transparency of the international financial markets and the establishment of stricter rules. When she chaired the G8 in 2007 Germany worked towards greater transparency and better regulation of the financial markets; at the time the G8 achieved the adoption of a good conduct code on the part of credit rating agencies and personal commitments with regard to high risk hedge funds. The Chancellor stressed the importance of the present issue: the very confidence of the people in the market. The present crisis might have repercussions on the German economy but specialists see no reason to doubt the strength of the German financial system. On 25th September German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück spoke to the Bundestag on the state of the financial markets.

The Social Democrat Party (SPÖ), the ÖVP's partner in the outgoing government coalition took the lead in the early general elections that took place in Austria on 28th September - they won 29.7% of the vote and 58 seats ahead of the ÖVP which won 25.6% (50 seats), the far right party (FPÖ) 18% (35 seats), the populist party led by Jörg Haider (BZÖ) 11% (21 seats) and the Greens 9.8% (19 seats). The small parties did not win the vital 4% of the vote in order to be represented in the Austrian parliament that has 183 seats. Turn out rose to 71.4% in comparison with 78.5% in 2006. The Social Democrat Party (SPÖ) won the election in spite of a significant decline; it achieved the worst score in its history. Both far right parties (FPÖ and BZÖ) achieved significant progress. Who will comprise the next government coalition?

Belgian Prime Minister, Yves Leterme received the massive support of his party (CD&V) on 27th September with regard to starting major negotiations with the French-speakers in October on the future of the country and on remaining in government. 82% of the registered members in Flanders' leading party approved the motion, giving the greenlight to the party's participation in discussions that are to start up again on 8th October; talks aim to provide Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part in the north of the country with more autonomy. A wide majority (70.7%) also rejected the motion calling for the party to quit the federal government. By accepting to start these negotiations the CD&V caused the collapse of a political alliance that it had formed with a small, separatist party in Flanders, the NVA. This scission will allow the moderates in the Flemish camp to free themselves of the more radical elements thereby leading the way to the end of the negotiations blockade.

According to statistics from the Danish Energy Authority, the share of energy emanating from renewable sources such as wind and biomass rose from 15.6% to 17% between 2006 and 2007. This is a major step towards attaining the 20% goal established for 2011. Improvements in energy efficiency mean a decrease in energy consumption in the manufacturing industry (-1.6%) and in the sector of trade and industry (-1.5%). However consumption increased by 4% in the transport sector which contributed to an overall increase in energy consumption of 1.4% in 2007. Finally these figures show that 29.3% of electricity is provided by renewable energies.

The Spanish government which is facing a severe slowing in the country's economic growth adopted an "austere" draft budget 2009 on 26th September. Although it shows a deficit it will not affect social spending and still try to support the economy. "It is the harshest budget that the country has seen in many years," admitted Economy Minister Pedro Solbes. The draft budget 2009 lays stress on "spending" that may help the economy recover (infrastructure, research and development) and protect the weakest from the effects of the crisis.

EuropaNova has invited Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission for Justice, Freedom and Security to a citizen's audition on 2nd October at the House of Europe in Paris at 7pm. The jury will comprise Laurent Giovannoni, Secretary General of CIMADE, Laurent Hincker, lawyer and Chairman of the Atelier Européen and Pierre Barge, Chairman of the AEDH.

On 23rd September Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission for Justice, Freedom and Security declared that the European Commission was looking into the legal compatibility of the "Italian security package". He indicated that "the draft decree with regard to the transposition of the free movement directive (2004/38) presents problems of compatibility with community law as it stands" and that also the existing transposition decree posed the same problem as far as rules on the automatic expulsion of EU citizens were concerned. He stressed that both draft laws relative to family reunification and procedures with regard to the acknowledgement of refugee status were not a problem "given the details provided by the Italian authorities on the Commission's request."

From 22nd to 24th September Irish President Mary McAleese was in Romania on a State visit. She was the guest of her Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu and spoke with Prime Minister, Calin Popescu Tariceanu. With regard to the Irish "no" to the Lisbon Treaty the Irish President said in Bucharest that "the Irish government was trying to find an answer at present but that it was too early to say what that would be."

On 22nd September British Foreign Minister, David Miliband spoke at length on the UK's foreign policy. He notably spoke of the situation in Georgia, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe before moving on to the peace process in the Middle East and the importance of defence and the fostering of democracy. He also took part in a debate published in the magazine Prospect on 24th September with regard to the importance of achieving "a world that was based on rules" and the promotion of democratic rules in the world so that violent conflict could be reduced.

The Swedish government presented its draft 2009 budget on 22nd September. Reforms rising to a total of 32 billion crowns have been planned to relieve the effects of a drop in economic activity (1.5% growth in 2008, 1.3% in 2009), to increase sustainably employment levels and to strengthen the Swedish Welfare State. With this the government would not only like to solve present problems but also to prepare Sweden's future.

The Belarusians voted on 28th September to elect their representatives; turn out was high: 75.3%. According to the chair of the Central Election Commission Lidia Ermochina, the 110 MPs were elected in one round. Not one candidate from the opposition was elected. The opposition has now denounced these elections as non-democratic saying that the signs of opening on the part of President Lukashenko were not credible; he has led the country since 1994. On the closure of the polling stations several hundred people met in the centre mof Minsk to denounce the electoral farce and to criticise the authoritarian regime in power. According to a OSCE co-ordinator the elections do not "correspond to OSCE standards" although they presented "improvements" in comparison with the previous elections.

On 23rd Septebmer Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili exhorted the UN not to allow Russia to flout its principles. He said that the Russian offensive which led to Georgia's explusion from the two separatist, pro-Russian territories in August was "a major test." He said he wanted an independent, international survey on the five day war undertaken by the Russian troops in South Ossetia and asked the UN to guarantee the respect of the ceasefire agreement and the peaceful settlement of the separatist Georgian conflicts.

On 24th September Serb Prime Minister, Mirko Cvetkovic, Home Minister, Ivia Dacic and the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn met in Brussels to discuss the future of Serbia within the EU, each hoping that Serbia will achieve candidate status in 2009.

From 23rd to 25th September a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) travelled to Russia and Georgia on a fact-finding visit and to seek out the opinions held on both sides. Since the two countries involved belong to the Council of Europe the conflict in South Ossetia in August 2008 will be the focus of debate during an upcoming plenary session of the Assembly that will start work on 29th September. During a press conference, Luc van der Brande, the PACE President called for an international inquiry into the circumstances of the war between Georgia and Russia.

From 23rd to 29th September the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly took place. Food and energy crises and the turbulence on the banking markets were the focus of discussions. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a meeting before the end of 2008 with the most directly affected Heads of State and Government in order to meet the challenges of the financial crisis. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a new world financial order to put an end to the present economic crisis. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili insisted on the immediate adoption of a non-acknowledgement policy of the two separatist provinces in Georgia. Boris Tadic, the Serb President announced the presentation of a project that calls on the General Assembly to request a consultative opinion of the International Court of Justice with regard to the legality of the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

According to a Eurobarometer survey published on 25th September, 16% of the Europeans interviewed between March and May 2008 knew that the next European elections would take place in 2009 (six months earlier this figure was only 10%). Only 8% of Europeans are really interested in these elections whilst 22% are not interested at all. With regard to campaign issues economic concerns come out ahead (more than 40% of those interviewed), notably unemployment (47%), economic growth (45%) and buying power (41%). Institutional issues and European policies are not greatly quoted (10-20%). Positions adopted by candidates with regard to national interests count for 37%, and their attitude towards European interests 36% in the choice of candidate. However this survey reveals that the Parliament is still the institution in which Europeans have the most confidence (52%) in spite of a slight loss of three points since autumn 2007.

According to figures published by Eurostat on 23rd September in July 2008 in comparison with June the euro area industrial new orders index grew by 1.0% and by 2.3% in the EU. However excluding ships, railway and aerospace equipment, which experienced a sharp rise of 10% in the euro area and 17.4% in the EU industrial new orders fell by 1.4% in the euro area and by 3.6% in the EU. The highest increases were recorded in Estonia (+9.9%), Italy (+5.9%) and France (+4.3%), and the largest decreases in Lithuania (-2.6%), Sweden (-2.2%) and Poland (-2.1%).

On 23rd September the organisation Transparency International published its annual report on corruption in the world. Using its Corruption Perceptions Index Transparency International assesses the perceived level of corruption affecting civil services and the political classes. Denmark, New-Zealand and Sweden achieve the best mark with 9.3, Finland achieves 9, the Netherlands 8.9, France lies 23rd, behind Germany (14th), the UK (16th), the USA, Belgium and Japan (both 18th) but ahead of Spain (28th) and Italy (55th). This index reveals the vicious circle linking poverty, the collapse of the institutions and corruption.

The French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) has published its 2009 issue of Ramses, the world's "annual report on the economic system and strategies" under the direction of Thierry de Montbrial and Philippe Moreau Defarges. This work offers the reader thematic analyses and reference points to understand world geopolitics.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin welcomed an exhibition for the first time in Germany on the hundreds of objects and works of art that were confiscated by the Nazis from their Jewish owners during Hitler's dictatorship. Via 15 works of art and objects the exhibition tries to follow the history of the objects since their confiscation by the Gestapo until the settlement of their restitution to the descendants of their owners. The exhibition will continue until 25th January 2009.