Le Pen’s core message promises an end to open borders, multiculturalism and free-trade. She has promised to hold a referendum on France’s membership of the EU and vows to limit immigration to 10,000 people per year.

As centre-right candidate Francois Fillon battles a financial scandal, Le Pen could end up facing liberal former banker, Emmanuel Macron – who is running his first ever election campaign. With the first round of voting approaching in April, we will be discussing the significance of this election for France and the EU, and exploring who could come out on top.

Chaired by Jamie Coomarasamy, presenter on World Tonight on Radio 4, Newshour on the BBC World Service and BBC World News. Coomarasamy was formerly a BBC Correspondent in Paris, Warsaw, Moscow and Washington.

Speakers (full panel announced soon)

Natalie Nougayrède is a columnist, leader writer and foreign affairs commentator for The Guardian. She was previously executive editor and managing editor of Le Monde.

Charles Grant CMG is director of the Centre for European Reform (CER). He works on EU foreign and defence policy, Russia, China, the euro and Britain’s relationship with the EU. His biography of Commission President Jacques Delors (“Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built”) was published by Nicolas Brealey in 1994. In 2004 he became a chevalier of France’s Ordre Nationale du Mérite, and in 2013 a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) “for services to European and wider international policy-making”. In 2015 he was awarded the Bene Merito medal by the Polish government and the Star of Italy medal by the Italian government. Charles is a regular contributor to the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times International Edition and many other publications. He can be followed on twitter at @CER_Grant.

Philippe Marlière is a professor of French and European politics at University College London. His publications revolve around the French Left, European social democracy, questions of citizenship, integration and racism in France. He is writing a book on the shift to the right of the republican ideology in contemporary France. He contributes opinion articles to the media, notably The Guardian, openDemocracy, Le Monde and has a blog on Mediapart, the main on line publication in France.

By Nicole Hunt 

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, goes on trial in Paris on Monday accused of complicity in the deaths of 11 people. The charges relate to bombings in France in 1982 and 1983. Carlos is already serving a life sentence for the 1975 murder of two French security agents and a Lebanese informant; he rose to prominence after orchestrating an armed raid on OPEC’s Vienna headquarters that same year, during which three people were killed.

In Brussels, euro zone Finance Ministers hold their monthly meeting. Tensions are expected to be high following last week’s will-they-or-won’t-they discussions on a referendum on the new EU bailout deal.

The meeting continues into Tuesday when non-euro zone EU members join their counterparts for yet more talks.

The second round of Liberia’s presidential election is also on Tuesday, with the country set to find out whether incumbent President and newly-anointed Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will serve another term or be replaced by former UN envoy William Tubman.

Dmitry Medvedev, Angela Merkel, Francois Fillon and Mark Rutte attend the opening ceremony for the Nord Stream 1 Pipeline in Lubmin, Germany. The gas pipeline connects Northern Europe to Russia via the Baltic Sea.

The International Energy Agency publishes its annual World Energy Outlook on Wednesday, which projects energy supply and demand worldwide through to 2030.

In Paris, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) convenes to discuss the recommended catch limits for bluefin tuna. The meeting follows a report last month which found that overfishing was rampant, with 140 per cent more bluefin meat entering the market than was reported from the Mediterranean alone.

News Corporation’s James Murdoch is back in front of the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Thursday. The Committee recalled Murdoch to question him about testimony he gave at a hearing on 19 July, when he appeared alongside his father Rupert, which was contradicted by witnesses at subsequent hearings.

With all eyes nervously watching the global financial markets, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the European Central Bank hold their annual International Banking Conference on Thursday and Friday.

The New 7 Wonders Foundation announces the new seven wonders of nature on Friday, following a world campaign that has seen them visit 28 finalists sites and has encouraged people to vote for their favourites.

Meanwhile, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the UN tribunal set up to investigate the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri, holds a public hearing to decide whether to try in absentia four Hezbollah members indicted in the case.

The United States hosts the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Honolulu on Saturday, followed by the North American Leaders’ Summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday.

Candlelight vigils are held in London, Cape Town and Mariestad, Sweden, in memory of Anni Dewani on the first anniversary of her death. Dewani was murdered in an apparent carjacking while on honeymoon in Cape Town last year. Her husband Shrien was subsequently implicated in her death, and is currently appealing his extradition to South Africa to face charges.