As part of the partnership between the Robert Schuman Foundation and Audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF), the Foundation is broadcasting on its site its most recent programme "Talking Europe" whose guest this week is Yoannis Kasoulides, the Cypriot Foreign Minister.

Outgoing Head of State Filip Vujanovic (Democratic Socialist Party, DPS) was re-elected as President of Montenegro on 7th April. He won 51.21% of the vote in comparison with 48.79% which went to his only rival, former Foreign Minister Miodrag Lekic. The election was a closely run one with both candidates claiming victory nearly 24 hours after the closure of the polling stations. Only 7000 votes (out of a total 327,000) separated the adversaries, said the head of the electoral commission, Ivan Kalezic.

On 4th April 2013 the representatives of Greece's creditors (EU-ECB and the IMF) resumed talks with the Greek government and their audit of the country's finances in order to come to an agreement in view of releasing a further tranche of aid of 2.8 billion euros and to check that Athens has undertaken the reforms that have been demanded. Amongst the subjects under discussion were the reduction of the number of civil servants, the review of a controversial tax on real estate and the recapitalisation of the banks. On 7th April after discussions between the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and the Troika representatives no agreement had been reached. The merger of the National Bank of Greece and Eurobank was suspended, since the Troika was still sceptical about the need to do this. Neither side came to a compromise on the number of civil servants' posts to do away with and Athens' creditors question the government's ability to make good the public deficit with the revenues of a new real estate tax.

According to the conclusions of the report "She Figures" that the European Commission published on 5th April 2013 women's under-representation in scientific disciplines and careers continues whilst the number of researchers is rising in Europe. Indeed women only represent 33% of researchers and 20% of university professors in Europe whilst 15.5% of higher education establishments are led by women. The Commission is inviting Member States to remove obstacles which prevent recruitment, and maintain and take women forward in research careers.

On 3rd April 2013 the Serb and Kosovo Prime Ministers met in Brussels during a meeting organised by Catherine Ashton, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. It was the 8th and last meeting of its kind under the aegis of the EU. No agreement was found on Kosovo's acknowledgement by Serbia. "The breach between the two sides is close but deep," declared Ms Ashton. On 8th April Serb Prime Minister Ivica Dacici confirmed that he refused to sign an agreement as matters stood, and called for an "urgent resumption of dialogue with EU mediation." Ms Ashton regretted this decision deeming that every condition had been met to reach an agreement and that it was not up to the EU to impose it but that the two parties should come to a compromise.

On 2nd April 2013 the German statistics office Destatis published Germany's energy export and import results in 2012. According to the figures Germany has exported more electricity than it imported for the sixth year running. In 2012 the energy imports came from France (13.2 TWh), Denmark (8.5 TWh) and the Czech Republic (8.4 TWh). The energy volumes exported were mainly towards the Netherlands, (22.6 TWh), Austria (15.9 TWh) and Switzerland (12.7 TWh).

Following the resignation of the Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris, because of his former position as CEO of the Laiki Bank in 2012, that was liquidated as part of the country's rescue plan, former Labour Minister Haris Georgiades was appointed to this post on 3rd April 2013. The latter was replaced by Zeta Emiliandou, an executive civil servant in the Cypriot government. The Robert Schuman Foundation publishes a table representing the ranking of EU Member States in terms of the number of women within governments.

On 4th April 2013 French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was host to Serb Prime Minister Ivica Dacic in Paris. Their meeting mainly focused on bilateral relations between France and Serbia which have been associated since 2011 thanks to a strategic partnership. In this context they spoke of a number of existing cooperation agreements and said that they wanted to strengthen these in various areas such as higher education, the environment, energy and infrastructure development. Moreover in terms of Serbia's accession to the EU Jean-Marc Ayrault encouraged his counterpart to continue discussions with Kosovo in order to come to an agreement which would stabilise the region.

On 4th April the Greek parliament approved a bill designed to boost private investments, in a bid to bring the country out of recession. This bill, which encourages investments, aims to simplify bureaucracy thanks to an acceleration of authorisation procedures in a great number of sectors and the creation of a new one-stop-shop for investors. The bill introduces specific rules for the users of seaplanes whilst Greece, whose economy greatly depends on tourism has hundreds of badly serviced islands. "Theories alone will not give us growth and employment (...) we need new investments," declared the Secretary of State for Development, Notis Mitarachi during a parliamentary debate.

Miguel Relvas, the Portuguese Deputy Prime Minister, Parliamentary Affairs Minister resigned on 4th April 2013. Mr Relvas whose resignation has been planned for some weeks indicated that he no longer felt inclined to continue. The media believe that this decision and a scandal over how he obtained his university degree are linked.

On 3rd April 2013 Romanian Prime Minister, Interim Justice Minister Victor Ponta put forward the candidates for the key positions of General and Anti-Corruption Prosecutors to the Supreme Judiciary Council. Laura Cadruta Kovesi was put forward for the post of National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor and Tiberiu Nitu as Prosecutor General. The SJC will give its opinion about these suggestions which will then be submitted to the Romanian President Traian Basescu. The latter refused the previous proposals put by Victor Ponta due to the lack of transparency in the procedure. According to some experts the present procedure is still marked by a total lack of "transparency and equity." Romania as well as Bulgaria are the focus of a European anti-corruption monitoring mechanism. The Robert Schuman Foundation has published a paper on this issue.

On 1st April 2013 the UK abolished the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and replaced it with a dual system comprising two new financial regulators. The Prudential Regulation Authority is responsible for checking the good health of the banks whilst the Financial Conduct Authority is especially responsible for consumer protection. Moreover these two new organisations, the Financial Policy Committee at the Bank of England will define the guidelines of the supervisory policy and monitor the threats made against the financial stability system. This new system illustrates the government's determination to strengthen the monitoring of the banks. The FSA was severely criticised for not having been able to manage the financial crisis in 2008.

The Albanian parliament approved a government reshuffle on 4th April 2013 after the Socialist Integration Movement quit the coalition led by Prime Minister Sali Berisha; it has joined the opposition in view of the general elections planned for 23rd June next. The reshuffle targeted Foreign Affairs, Healthcare, Economy held since the last elections in 2009 by the LSI.

Yuri Lutsenko, former Ukrainian minister and close ally of former imprisoned Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was freed on 7th April 2013 in a gesture designed to calm the crisis with the EU and to alleviate tension with the opposition. Barely out of prison Mr Lutstenko declared "I am very happy to be finally amongst those who dream like I do of a free, democratic, European Ukraine." "Politics are not undertaken by the presidency and its administration nor in Parliament. It happens in the street. We have already won and we shall win again." "I welcome President Yanukovich's decision to pardon Lutsenko. It is a first step but an important one in addressing the problem of selective justice," indicated Stefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement. When will it be Yulia Tymoshenko's turn?

On 2nd April 2013 the authorities for data protection in six European countries including the CNIL in France decided to take action together against the internet giant Google which did not answer their request to modify its confidentiality rules. Indeed in October 2012 the 27 European data protection authorities demanded that Google make changes to its new confidentiality rules within four months in order to "fall in line" with the European IT and Liberties directive - otherwise they would take "repressive action".

The treaty on the arms trade was adopted on 2nd April 2013 by the General Assembly 154 votes in support, three against (Syria, Iran, North Korea) and 23 abstentions. The treaty adopted aims to "introduce common standards that are as strict as possible in order to improve the regulation of the traditional international arms trade." It also aims to prevent and eliminate the illegal trade of this type of arms and prevent their misuse. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the adoption of the Treaty which he considers as an "historic diplomatic achievement - the culmination of dreams that date back a long way and of years of work." This international legal instrument will be open for ratification as of 3rd June next.

According to the provisional report 2012 published on 3rd April 2013 by the OECD, in 2012 development aid suffered its greatest contraction since 1997 and fell further behind the goals set to abolish poverty. Public development aid decreased by nearly 4% over one year, ie 5,360 billion $. Although the EU is still the main provider for poor countries the European Commission regretted the reduction in aid and reminded Member States that they had promised to achieve the 0.7% goal by 2015 at the latest. The biggest reductions were indeed recorded by most fund providers which have been sorely hit by the crisis such as Greece (-17%), Spain (-49.7%) and Italy (-34.7%).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will contribute one billion euros over three years to the 10 billion euro bail-out plan granted to Cyprus announced a press release by the IMF General Director Christine Lagarde on 3rd April 2013. The latter added that she was expecting the IMF's Board to approve this decision in May.

According to an estimate published by Eurostat on 3rd April 2013 the euro zone's annual inflation rate was estimated at 1.7% in March 2013, which is down in comparison with February, when it lay at 1.8%. Regarding the main elements comprising inflation in the euro zone, foodstuffs, alcoholic drinks and tobacco are due to experience the highest annual rate in March (2.7%, stable in comparison with February), followed by services (1.9%, in comparison with 1.5% in February), energy (1.7%, in comparison with 3.9% in February) and industrial goods (energy apart) (1%, in comparison with 0.8% in February).

In a paper published on 5th April 2013 the German, Italian and French economic institutions (IFO, ISTAT and INSEE) stated that the euro zone's economy would slowly emerge from recession, recovering growth in the second and third quarters. In their forecasts the three institutions said that they were forecasting an unchanged GDP rate in the first quarter of 2013, after a contraction of 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2012. The GDP is due to "increase slightly by 0.1% in the second quarter and by 0.2% in the third quarter." The acceleration of foreign demand together with continued calming in financial turbulence will foster the stabilisation of investment. The report states however that this provisional scenario supposed that financial tension in Europe did not worsen.

On the occasion of the Drawing Show that will take place in Paris from 10th to 15th April 2013 the Carnavalet Museum is devoting an exhibition to painter Georg Emanuel Opiz (1775-1841). The exhibition offers a selection of 45 works that belong to watercolour series including "The Russian Occupation of Paris", "Customs and costumes of Paris" or "Picture of Paris", as well as a series of etchings taken from Parisian scenes.