Monaco's parliament meets to choose new leader.

Prince Albert II announces a new Minister of State and a new Government councilor.

Land reclamation, Mecaplast, National Council session, economic agreement with Luxembourg

Land reclamation

The big news story this week was the suspension of the project to reclaim land from the sea. In a press conference on Wednesday morning, the government confirmed that further environmental studies would be made in 2009 to ensure there'd be no negative effects on the marine eco system. In addition, the Minister of State said it made good sense to delay the project in the current economic climate.

Those of us who were fast asleep at 2.30 on Monday morning would have been forgiven for thinking that the Monaco football team had just won a major victory. Suddenly, the streets were filled with cars beeping their horns, as the majority party of the past 5 years celebrated a second term in office. With 20 seats out of 24, the UPM party won the election for the National Council of Monaco, the remaining 4 seats being taken by Rassemblement et Enjeux (REM). Just under 77% of the electorate turned out, 1504 of whom voted for the complete list of UPM's 24 candidates, against 1248 for REM.

On Friday afternoon, three lists of candidates for election to Monaco's National Council were confirmed. As expected, the current ruling party Union pour Monaco (UPM), and the opposition alliance Rassemblement & Enjeux, both fielded the full 24 candidates. Monaco Ensemble's list contained just 15 candidates, and the Parti Monegasque pulled out their 13 candidates at the last minute. It's now up to the 7600 Monegasque nationals to cast their votes on Sunday 3 February.

The Monaco Ensemble alliance has finalized its list of candidates for election to the National Council in two weeks time. There are just 15 names after Stephan Bruno of the Synergie Monegasque party stepped down, citing as his reasons that he wishes to remain true to his own values and that he can serve his country better by not standing.

Yesterday the Parti Monegasque announced on their website that they wouldn't be taking part in the elections for the National Council this year. Last week, we reported that they'd decided not to be part of the list of Rassemblement et Enjeux, the alliance of RPM and Valeurs et Enjeux. The reason cited was that the Parti Monegasque would not be properly represented, since only four of their candidates would have been listed as part of the alliance. They also refused to join Monaco Ensemble.

The opposition party alliance of Rassemblement et Enjeux held a public meeting on Monday evening to voice their dissatisfaction with the UPM's leadership of the National Council over the past 5 years. Although the election campaign doesn't officially start until Saturday 26 January, the party announced some of the items that will be on the political agenda if they're elected. In contrast to the UPM's interests, many of the issues revolve around the environment and young people, and include:

On Wednesday evening, the Union Pour Monaco (UPM) presented a taste of things to come if they're re-elected to the National Council in February. On this website, we're particularly interested in their proposals to improve life for the business community of the Principality. Some of the projects which were presented for the 2008-2013 session are to:

• Make it easier to create new enterprises.
• Allow the self employed (apart from shopkeepers) and non-salaried to obtain premises in the local estates.
• Work towards a law against harassment at work.

There are just nine days left for Monaco's political parties to put together their candidate lists for the parliamentary elections.