The Robert Schuman Foundation is publishing the second revised edition of the Permanent Atlas of the European Union. This reference work presents the Union, its institutions and each of the Member States via their history, their culture and their statistics. A unique publication, it offers free access to an internet site www.atlas.permanent.eu on which this data is permanently updated providing everyone with constant access to better information on Europe and its Member States. Order it online.

The Social Liberal Union (USL), a multiparty (left-right) coalition led by outgoing Prime Minister Victor Ponta easily won the parliamentary elections that took place on 9th December in Romania. The coalition won 58.6% of the vote in the general election and 60% in the senatorial election. The Romanian Right Alliance (ARD), led by former Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, won 16.7% in the Chamber of Deputies and 16.95% in the Senate. The People's Party (PP-DD), which is both nationalist and populist, led by Dan Diaconescu came third with 13.8%. The Democratic Union of the Hungarians of Romania (UDMR) led by Hunor Kelemen, just won enough to rise over the 5% mark, which is vital if seats are to held in parliament. Turnout totalled 41.6%.

On 4th December 2012 the 27 Finance Ministers discussed various proposals in view of introducing Banking Union and notably a single supervisory system. They also agreed to organise an additional session before the European Council on 13th and 14th December in order to reach agreement with the European Parliament before the end of the year. They gave Greece an extension of two years for it to achieve its fiscal and budgetary goals which were negotiated with the troika (EU, IMF, ECB). The Council and Parliament came to an agreement on amendments regarding new rules on the activity of the ratings agencies.

On 10th December 2012 Presidents Herman Van Rompuy (European Council), José Manuel Barroso (European Commission) and Martin Schulz (European Parliament) received the Nobel Peace Prize 2012 in Oslo on behalf of the European Union. They were accompanied by children and EU representatives and its partners. The Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation published an editorial entitled "The Nobel Appeal".

The President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy presented a new version of his report on Economic and Monetary Union on 6th December 2012 together with the Presidents of the Commission and the European Central Bank and also the Eurogroup. This report puts forward clearly identifiable stages and sets a deadline for each of these in order to improve the governance of the single currency. Long term this report targets the creation of a real mechanism for the absorption of economic shocks across the EU, which means that the latter will enjoy autonomous fiscal capabiltiy.

On 6th December 2012 the European Commission adopted series of measures designed to improve the fight to counter tax evasion and the planning of abusive taxation. These practices cause an economic loss of one trillion euros per year. This action plan follows an appeal on the part of the European Parliament in April 2012 to counter this problem. The Commission is planning for States to identify and place tax havens on a black list based on common criteria. A strengthening of national legislation should prevent the lack of taxation on certain companies.

On 6th December 2012 the European Council approved the agreement concluded on the European budget 2013 with the European Parliament and the adoption of the project to amend the 2012 budget. The adoption of the latter had been set as a condition by Parliament for the final adoption of the 2013 budget in the plenary session in Strasbourg. As a result 6 billion euros will be injected to complete the 2012 budget thereby preventing the collapse of payments to several of its programmes. The Council agreed on a 2013 budget representing 132,84 billion euros in payment appropriations ie 0.99% of the Union's GNI.

The German Chancellor was re-elected President of the CDU on 4th December 2012 in Hannover with 97.94% of the vote, her best score in 12 years as head of the party. She is standing in the general elections that will take place on 22nd September 2013 in view of a third mandate as the German Chancellor (a post she has held since 2005). In 2000 she was the first woman to become head of Germany's biggest party. Angela Merkel is one of the most popular political personalities in the country.

Estonian Justice Minister, Kristen Michal, resigned from office on 6th December 2012 after the government failed to put an end to the media firestorm caused by a scandal over the illegal funding of the political party he is involved with. "I am resigning to enable the Reform Party and the government to work in a calm atmosphere again," he announced in a press release.

During the meeting of the Interministerial Committee for Women's Rights on 30th November 2012 French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault presented a government plan in support of gender equality. The plan lays out a series of measures notably involving sexism at school, the fight to counter violence, professional equality and parity.

Italy is preparing for early general elections after two dramatic events on 8th December: the announcement by Silvio Berluscon that he will be running and that of Mario Monti, who had decided to resign as soon as the budget has been adopted. After a meeting with the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, Mario Monti said his decision to resign was "final" after the vote of the budget that is to take place by the end of the year. If Mr Monti resigns before the end of the month general elections are due to take place in February or March 2013. A period of 45 to 70 days is indeed planned between the dissolution of the chambers and a new election.

The President of the Republic of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, is the winner of the Charlemagne Prize 2013, one of the highest of European prizes, for her work in support of the integration of the Baltic countries into the European Union and her contribution towards "pan-European unity". The jury insisted on paying tribute to her "courage, determination and her confidence" in overcoming the crisis "at a time of great instability." The Charlmagne Prize will be given to her on 9th May 2013 at the townhall of Aachen, the German border town between Belgium and the Netherlands.

On 4th December 2012 Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk appointed Janusz Piechocinski, leader of the Farmers' Party (PSL) as Economy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in his coalition government. On 6th December President Bronislaw Komorowski formally approved this appointment. Mr Piechocinski, 52, is an infrastructures expert and replaced Waldemar Pawlak who resigned from office mid-November after having lost the race to be re-elected as the leader of the Farmers' Party.

On 4th December 2012 the Slovenian Parliament unanimously adopted (76 members present) a bill that takes the age of retirement up from 63 to 65; this is one of the reforms requested by the EU and the IMF in order to balance the country's public finances. "The aim of this draft bill on the retirement system is to put an end to the reduction of pensions and to ensure the long term financial survival of the pension funds", explained the Labour Minister Andrej Vizjak.

On 4th December 2012 the new Montenegrin government led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic was approved by parliament 44 votes in support, 26 against and 1 abstention. During his speech Mr Djukanovic laid out the priorities of his new mandate. He hopes to improve Montenegrin citizens' living conditions via the strengthening of the rule of law and the introduction of a more stable, more open economic environment and to continue reforms and negotiations thereby enabling the country to move towards EU and NATO membership.

On 7th December 2012 Gazprom launched work to build the gas pipeline South Stream with Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendence. The project, whose total cost is assessed at 16.5 billion euros, is being paid by a consortium held by Gazprom (50%), Italian company ENI (20%), the French company, EDF (15%) and German Wintershall (15%). This gas pipeline aims to deliver Russian gas to the EU via the Black Sea thereby avoiding Ukraine as of 2015.

On 7th December 2012 French President François Hollande and the President of the Helvetic Confederation, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf addressed various subjects such as the inheritance tax convention, mutual administrative tax assistance and the "Rubik" agreement, that is likened by François Hollande to a "tax amnesty". The talks also focused on international issues and on Franco-Swiss work in multilateral organisations. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf notably re-iterated that Switzerland wanted to be more involved in the G20 talks.

On 5th December 2012 an agreement was found within the EADS group in view of the groups Daimler and Lagardère (German and French respectively) withdrawing from the shareholding structure. The shareholders' pact in application since the launch of EADS in 2000 will be abolished and replaced by an ordinary company governance system, which is due to be approved during the first semester of 2013. The new agreement notably plans for all board members to become independent whilst France and Germany will hold 12% of the capital each and Spain 4%. However a shareholding structure will be secured in order to guarantee France, Germany and Spain the protection of their legitimate, strategic interests.

On 7th December 2012 during the 18th UN Conference on Climate Change the participating countries came to an agreement thereby opening a second period of commitment as part of the Kyoto Protocol, which will extend from 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2020. It will involve the EU, Croatia and Iceland together with eight other industrialised countires ie 15% of the CO2 emissions in the world. Moreover these agreements are pushing the States in the North to help developing countries, which are the most severely affected by global warming, "when financial circumstances allow it." Finally the desire to adopt "a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreement that is legally binding" at the UN Conferene in 2015 was repeated; this agreement would enter into force in 2020 and would involve all countries.

According to Eurostat the euro zone's GDP has decreased by 0.1% over the third quarter of 2012 in comparison with the previous quarter whilst the EU's GDP increased by as much. On an annual basis the euro zone's GDP declined by 0.6% in comparison with the 3rd quarter 2011, and by 0.4% for the Union's GDP. However consumption remained stable in the euro zone and increased by 0.1% in the Union.

On 5th December 2012 the organisation, Transparency International published its annual report on the perception of corruption in 176 countries. According to the latter the countries most seriously affected by the euro zone crisis are also amongst those in which there has been the most significant rise in the level of the perception of corruption. Greece and Italy are ranked 94th and 72nd respectively, losing 14 and 3 places. Finland and Denmark are the two countries in the lead in this ranking.

Bernard Stirn has published a paper entitled "Towards European Public Law". European integration is occurring to a large extent via legislation. Studying the specific features of European law reveal the European legal model in all of its diversity, its originality and its strength.

The Milan Opera, the Scala, opened its season 2012/2013 on 7th December 2012 with "Lohengrin" by Richard Wagner, a controversial choice in Italy since 2013 marks both the bicentenary of the German composer and that of Giuseppe Verdi. La Scala recalls that it is planning to put on no less than 7 of Verdi's works this season : Falstaff, Nabucco, MacBeth, Oberto conte di San Bonifacio, Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlo and Aida.