Foundation Chairman Jean-Dominique Giuliani, has published an editorial on world financial regulation and the issues at stake at the European Council on 18th and 19th June. After the European elections he published an anlysis of the effects this election will have.

The Robert Schuman Foundation has published an interactive map on its site devoted to the European elections with the results from all 27 Member States. In line with the latest figures that are still provisional on the part of the European Parliament, it has also published the new composition of the European Parliament, the distribution of the seats by political group in each Member State, the turnout in each of the 27 Member States, as well as a table on the women elected to the European Parliament for the 7th legislature (2009-2014).

According to figures published by the Austrian Statistics Office imports declined by 18.8% in the first quarter of 2009 and exports dropped by 23.2% in comparison with the same period in 2008. The trade balance demonstrated a deficit of 1.15 billion euros in the first quarter. In EU trade Austrian imports declined by 20.4% and exports by 25.2% whilst with third countries they decreased by 14.4% and 17.8% respectively.

After the decision by the World Health Organisation to bring the alert level up to grade 6 the Czech Presidency represented by the Czech Healthcare Minister, Dana Juraskva and the European Commission via the European Commissioner for Healthcare, Androulla Vassiliou agreed on 11th June on the application of national action plans within the EU.

On 10th June the European Commission presented its community strategy for the Baltic Sea. The region is facing pressing challenges including the deteriorating state of the Baltic Sea, poor transport links, barriers to trade and energy supply concerns. These problems have been exacerbated by a lack of effective coordination. The Strategy, presented by Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, above all aims to maximise the development potential of the Member States and regions in the Baltic Sea area, which is home to nearly 100 million people. The strategy takes the form of a communication and an action plan with a list of 80 flagship projects, some of which have already been launched. The four cornerstones of the strategy are to make this part of Europe: environmentally sustainable (process waste water); prosperous (promoting innovation in small and medium enterprises);accessible and attractive (improving transport links); safe and secure (better accident response).

The 27 European Finance and Economy Ministers, who met on 8th and 9th June notably looked at the reform of the European financial surveillance framework together with the recommendations put forward by "the Larosière" group and the communication published by the European Commission on 27th May last. These proposals will be presented for adoption during the European Council on 18th and 19th June next; they adopted the conclusions on the international financial aspects of the fight against climate change which are also being submitted to the European Council and on the promotion of good governance in the fiscal area to an international level.

During a Franco-German meeting in Paris on 11th June German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy recalled their support of the new candidature of outgoing European Commission president José Manuel Barroso but the latter must present his programme first. Germany and France want to consult the new European Parliament whose term in office starts on 14th July before taking a decision. In addition to this Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to launch an ambitious programme for the new European Parliament's term in office that will notably focus on the long term reform of the financial markets and the fight against climate change. They also deplored the trial undertaken by the Burmese junta against Aung San Suu Kyi. Finally they agreed to allow a few months to pass before deciding on the future of the military transport airplane, Airbus A400M, which has been seriously delayed.

Twelve protected areas in eight countries in the Danube basin signed a cooperation agreement in Vienna on 9th June for the protection of their biospheres with the support of the EU. "We want to highlight that the Danube is the joint heritage of Europe," said the initiative's (entitled Danubeparks) spokesperson, Director of the Austrian National Park Donau-Auen, Carl Manzano. Each area is to employ a project manager who will coordinate cooperation with the partner parks, funded notably by European Funds, in the participating countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania). Ecotourism is another area of cooperation planned for in the Danubeparks project. A budget of 2.8 million euros over three years has been released. Amongst the countries that lie on the river only Ukraine and Moldova are not participating in the programme.

A Council of eminent Europeans working with Bulgarian Prime Minister Serguey Stanishev (Paul Demaret, Rector of the College of Europe, Josep Piqué, former Spanish Foreign Minister, Aunus Salmi, former member of the European Auditors Court, Antonio Vitorino, former European Justice Commissioner, Casimir de Dalmau, Executive Director of Catalan executives and Dominique de Villepin, former French Prime Minister) observed on 9th June that the European integration of Bulgaria has raised some unprecedented problems which will serve as lessons during any other future enlargements of the EU, notably in the Western Balkans. In its report the council advises Brussels "to find a new strategic vision, a new partnership", with the EU candidate countries. The council notably proposes "a new progressive, open and flexible integration model - that is staggered and in which the EU's political and economic solidarity with regard to the candidate countries has to play an important role from the very start."

The head of the local government of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, Kuupik Kleist (IA, Inuit Ataqatigiit) winner of the general elections on 2nd June, presented, on 10th June, his government that is responsible for settling the island's major economic and social problems. The government will have to initiate the status of extended autonomy adopted by 75% of the Greenlanders during a referendum in November last and which opens the way to independence on this strategic island in the Arctic. This government comprises 9 ministers, including 4 women.

Twelve countries of Europe, Africa and Latin America, which met on 12th and 13th June in the Canary Islands as part of the South Atlantic Initiative decided to enhance their cooperation notably in the areas of the fight against drugs trafficking and maritime piracy. The "Lanzarote Declaration" published after the meeting mentions the "added value of joint work in areas such as (...) the fight against drugs trafficking and other illegal trafficking as well as maritime piracy". On Spain and Portugal's initiative this was the first "open and informal" high level meeting in the "South Atlantic Initiative" which aims to promote trade and cooperation in this geographic sector.

On 9th June Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met German Defence Minister Franz Joseph Jung in Tallinn. The discussion mainly focused on military cooperation between the two countries within NATO and the EU. Andrus Ansip recalled the importance of the strategic cooperation of his country with Germany which is part of the hard core of these two organisations. In addition to this the two men spoke of the launch of a Cyber-Defence Centre within NATO. This was created thanks to cooperation between Estonia and Germany. This subject is of particular importance to Estonia which claims to be the "all Internet" State and fears cyberwars which it might be particularly vulnerable to.

In a communication by its transport and communications minister on 9th June Finland issued a warning to European transport ministers. The minister points to the Russian project to make it compulsory for any containers arriving in Russia to be transported by rail or sea. "I believe it is wise from a climatic and logistical point of view to transport as much as possible by rail but transferring the transport of containers over to rail cannot be undertaken because of a last minute administrative decision," declared Mr Vehviläinned, the Finish Minister in charge of the subject. The Finns fear that this Russian decision will paralyse trade along the Union's eastern border. In 2008 around 200,000 containers were taken from Finland to Russia, only 4% travelled by rail.

According to INSEE figures published on 11th June paid work declined by 1.2% in mainland France in the first quarter of 2009 in comparison with the 4th quarter of 2008, with 192,500 jobs lost mostly in the trading sectors. Nearly twice as many jobs were destroyed in the first quarter of 2009 than in 2008. Over one year paid work in the private sector revealed a contraction of 2.3% with 15,696,900 people working which corresponds to the destruction of 375,700 jobs since the end of the first quarter of 2008.

American Chrysler and the Italian Fiat car groups completed the agreement to enable the purchase of Fiat's assets by Chrysler, said the two companies on 10th June - the day after the green-light given by the Supreme Court of the USA. This company will be called Chrysler Group LLC, and will initially be controlled to a total of 20% by Fiat which is not providing money but its technology and new models. Its participation will rise gradually to a total of 35%.

On 9th June his Royal Highness the Grand Duke received Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker. After talks with the countries main political leaders the Grand Duke asked him to form a new government. The Prime Minister said after the talks that he was going to suggest to his party that negotiations start quickly with the Socialist Party (PSOL) to establish "a government that will continue work and which is responsible, which the country needs". After his appointment Jean-Claude Juncker received a PSOL delegation on 13th June for prior discussion in view of preparing negotiations that will lead to the formation of a new government.

On 8th June Dutch Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin suggested to take steps within the EU that aimed to make it easier for national authorities to deprive criminals of the gains of their misdeeds by simplifying the procedure to seize criminals assets. If these new legislative measures are approved by the other Member States they will be implemented rapidly across the entire Union. This project is part of the framework programme established in the Netherlands by the Justice Minister who aims to step up the fight against economic and financial crime. It also helps towards the new European programme in judicial cooperation that will be implemented by Stockholm at the end of 2009. The measures notably involve financial inquiries, the confiscation of property and bans on leaving the country.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met the President of the European Central Bank on 8th June. The roadmap for the adoption of the euro as well as the reform of finacial surveillance were the main subjects which the two men discussed. The Prime Minister believes that in the light of recent economic results Poland continues to believe it should remain moderately optimistic during the crisis. He stressed the government's will to continue the work started by the Council of Ministers and Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski just before economic slowing started. The aim of this is to maintain a relatively low budgetary deficit. He added that in spite of such requirements the country had always aimed to join the euro area as soon as possible.

On 10th June British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed his view of the reform of Parliament to British parliamentarians, stressing that everyone had to help to win back cititzens' confidence. In his opinion the procedures relative to MPs expenses need to be changed, also with regard to the freedom to access information and the modernisation of the House of Commons. The regulations of both chambers may now be defined by an independent agency.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt delivered a speech on 9th June in which he presented the aims of the upcomiing Swedish presidency of the EU.

On 8th June Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaçis was on an official visit to Paris where he met French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both leaders spoke of the bilateral relations between their two countries and the possibility of deepening these. Nicolas Sarkozy guaranteed the young Kosovar State that he would continue to support it on its road to consolidating democracy and prosperity. He also said that he supported Kosovo's integration of the EU and of NATO.

Outgoing Montnegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic was re-elected on 11th June as head of the new pro-European government. His coalition "European Montenegro" won 48 seats out of the 81 in the Montenegrin Parliament. During a speech delivered on 9th June to MPs he confirmed Montenegro's desire to enter the EU and NATO.

On 1st and 2nd June after a visit to the USA Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg called on all Member States of the Council of Europe to receive former prisoners who have been cleared and who require international protection. He also asked the USA to offer "cleared" prisoners domicile in the country. During his visit to Washington he met the special envoy for the closure of the detention centre of Guantanamo as well as representatives of the Department of State, the National Security Council, the Whitehouse and the Defence Department.

On 8th June Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO called for a Doha agreement on sustainable fishing. Concerned about over fishing and the exhaustion of fish stocks which is bad for the diversity of species but above all for the 43.5 million fishermen in the world, he recalled that WTO members were at present holding talks to help the fishing sector become more viable. "If an agreement was concluded now as part of the WTO this would guarantee richer oceans for future generations," he declared.

The delegates of 183 countries met in Bonn, Germany to negotiate a text that will replace the first phase of the Kyoto protocol which will end in 2012. Talks on climate change ended on 12th June with progress having been achieved even though there is still "great room to manoeuvre" according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the Framework Convention said he was pleased to see that governments had pinpointed areas they wanted to address in the final press release in Copenhagen, even though negotiations are still far from the emissions reductions advised by scientists.

Defence Ministers of the NATO countries met in Brussels on 11th and 12th June for the first time since the Strasbourg/Kehl summit. They thought the security situation in Kosovo positive and decided to reduce NATO forces there. A Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC)meeting also took place looking into the enhancement of interoperability between NATO members and EAPC partners. Ministers also spoke of NATO's reaction force's (NRF)future mission. On 12th June the North Atlantic Council was devoted to the transformation of the defence sector. The last session brought together allied ministers and their partners from non-NATO member countries, such as the Afghan Defence Minister, Mr Wardak, and representatives of international organisations present in Afghanistan to look into the training mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A) and the anti-drugs fight undertaken in the country.

According to figures published by Eurostat on 11th June the EU's current operations account recorded a deficit of 50.8 billion euros in the first quarter of 2009 in comparison with -46.2 billion in the first quarter of 2008 and -57.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. However the balance of services demonstrated a surplus of 15.3 billion in comparison with 18.5 billion in the first quarter of 2008 and +17.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008.

In a study by the DGAP entitled "Energiebeziehungen zwischen Russland und der EU in der Krise" (Energy Relations between Russia and the EU during the Crisis), Stefan Meister believes that the gas conflict between Ukraine and Russia at the beginning of 2009 damaged long term the relationship of trust between Russia and the EU. Whilst the Russians believe that Brussels does not put enough pressure on Kiev and that Gazprom is just as responsible as Kiev for the escalation in the conflict, EU critics feel that their warnings against excessive dependency on Russia with regard to energy are confirmed. Both the Russian proposal to draw up a new framework contract in the energy area as well as the EU's idea to establish a Eurasian energy forum have found little response.

The Central Asia - Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road Studies Programme have just published a paper entitled "The guns of August 2008. Russia's war in Georgia". Under the management of S. Cornell and S. Frederik Starr, ten leading European experts, Americans, Russians and Georgians review the origins of the conflict, the preparation for war, the campaign in the combat zone and the implications of this war which surprised the whole world.

On 12th June Anne Frank would have been 80 years old. For more than two years she lived with her parents, her sister and four other Jews in a specially equipped annex of an Amsterdam building. The writing of her famous "Diary" helped her put up with the confined space of their hiding place and the permanent fear of the family being discovered. Denounced on 4th August 1944 Anne Frank and her family were deported a short time afterwards to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen from which only her father escaped death. Anne Frank died in March 1945 only a few weeks before the liberation of the camp. Translated into more than 65 languages her Diary has been read by millions of people.