*** CHRISTOPHE HILLION, PANOS KOUTRAKOS (editors): Mixed Agreements Revisited. The EU and its Member States in the World. Hart Publishing (16 Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 - fax: 510710 - Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk - Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). "Modern Studies in European Law" series, No. 21. 2010, 396 pp, £75. ISBN 978-1-84113-954-8.
Mixed agreements concluded by the Union and its member states with third countries or international organisations have been going on since time immemorial, as pointed out by Christophe Hillion and Panos Koutrakos in their introduction to this book and have been, “a source of endless fascination (and no less confusion” to all those who are involved in this domain of European law. In 1982, the Leiden Europa Instituut organised a conference on this theme and this book is based on the results and conclusions of this conference, with David O'Keeffe and Henry Schermers developing the reference material. Twenty-five years later, the same Dutch institute and the University of Bristol repeated the process and a conference was organised in May 2008, which brought together judges from the European Court of Justice and the European Free Trade Association, legal experts from the different European institutions and senior academics. This book is, again, the extension of this conference and is expected to be as authoritative as its predecessor …
In 1982, Christiaan Timmermans, a young civil servant working at the Commission legal service, at the time headed by Claus-Dieter Ehlermann, was present at the conference. Twenty-five years later he was there again but this time as a judge from the court in Luxembourg. Who, therefore, would be better than he, for retracing the evolution of mixed agreements in this quarter of a century? In his eyes, the main observation made at the time, is still fully valid: “mixity, the concept of shared competences”, asserted itself and the Commission has lost some important skirmishes in the war to obtain exclusive representation. On the other hand, three major developments should be highlighted. Firstly, the Union has become a global actor, which is miraculous “in the light of the humble origins of the EEC as regards external relations”. Christiaan Timmermans interprets this as “an inbuilt paradox of the European integration process”, namely, that under the pressure of events, member states often resign themselves to accepting, indeed, even wishing something that they had so recently in the past vehemently refused - progress towards economic governance being the most recent illustration of this to date … The author, who has just retired from the European Court of Justice, points out that it is the jurisprudence of the latter, which, for the main part, introduces a certain discipline into the management of this mixity, by drawing upon, in particular, the principle of the duty of loyal cooperation between Community Europe and its member states, in the attempt to establish arrangements for sharing the roles between the latter, which had largely failed in the past. Ultimately, the different member states have always been, “using mixity as an instrument to guard jealously national competences”, which are still not been demanded by the Union in the field of external non-exclusive competences. On the contrary, the European Court of Justice, in its jurisprudence, has striven to not simply limit its jurisdiction to the exclusive aspects of the mixed agreements, falling within the field of Community Europe's exclusive competences. During the last quarter of a century mixity has been a fact of life of EU external relations. Is it going to remain so? Perhaps not, insofar as the Lisbon Treaty allows it to become “increasingly replaced by cross-pillar mixity” or “cross-sector” mixity - which will see the Union covering all external competences. Will it be necessary to reconcile the procedures of Community and intergovernmental decision-making, which will strengthen the prerogatives of the European Parliament but which could also consolidate the unanimity rule, Article 22 of the treaty on the European Union and from a posthumous point of view, would be a victory for General de Gaulle forty-five years after the Plan Fouchet, given that this enabled the European Council to adopt a decision on the strategic interests and objectives of the Union but only at unanimity? This gives us real food for thought and the four parts of the book are cut from the same vine. The first involves the authors attempting to define a typology for the Mixed Agreements. In the second part of the book, mixity is tackled within the constitutional framework and then examined in the light of institutional practices and practitioners. Finally, in the fourth part, Alan Dashwood (University of Cambridge) and Alan Rosas (also a judge in the European Court of Justice), attempt to look at what the Mixed Agreements' future will be like. Will a third colloquy be organised by the Leiden Europa Instituut and University of Bristol to have a look as what has happened, in twenty- five years' time? If there is a conference organised, Christiaan Timmermans has promised that he would, “try and be there”.
Michel Theys
*** TOMASZ KAMUSELLA, KRZYSZTOF JASKULOWSKI (Editors): Nationalisms Today. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Nationalisms Across the Globe" series, No. 1. 2009, 318 pp, €45.60. ISBN 978-3-03911-883-0.
This book inaugurates a new series that has developed out of the collaboration between Tomasz Kamusella, senior lecture at Trinity College Dublin and assistant professor at the University of Opole, with the half yearly publication of the Polish Academy of Science, Sprawy Narodowosciowe. His column focuses on nationalism and ethnic issues and has consistently made a significant contribution in English and subsequently helped to reach a wider public. This first volume published by Peter Lang is testimony to this. It begins with two contributions that explore new avenues for tackling the phenomenon of nationalism and ethnic issues on updated and broader theoretical bases. Professor Pierre van den Berghe explains in a very impressive interview that social sciences can learn something from socio-biology. The other articles written by sociologists, anthropologists and historians look at specific cases in Central Europe (Kachoube movement, a very burning issue involving Hungarians living abroad, the slavery of gypsies in Walachia and Moldavia, reactionary modernism in Romania between World War I and World War II, the problem of language and ethnicity and nationalism in Bulgaria) and Eastern Europe, with a focus on Belarus and Ukraine, interspersed with two contributions on Zimbabwe and South Africa.
(MT)
*** GUNTHER HAUSER, FRANZ KERNIC (editors): China: The Rising Power. Editions Peter Lang (see address attached) 2009, 215 pp, €36.40. ISBN 978-3-631-58269-5.
Among all the newly industrialised countries, China has very clearly become the main actor at the beginning of the 21st century, to such a point that this country is currently becoming a new political challenge to the US. It has overcome other countries in terms of direct foreign investment from abroad and possesses significant reserves in raw materials and its labour costs remain low. It is the fourth largest economy in the world and the third biggest exporter. In the next decade, it might become the biggest economy in the world if current trends continue. In the context of energy, China is weaving different bilateral links throughout the world. Ultimately, it is also part of the diplomatic picture at both regional and international levels and is a significant player in the realm of security. This book aims to provide a detailed exploration of the ongoing process of transformation in China and to compare it to other major political and economic powers. The second part of the book seeks to examine what will probably be Peking's forthcoming objectives in the near future, at energy, economic and security levels.
(NDu)
*** Rivista di studi politici internazionali. Casa Editrice Le Lettere (28 Costa San Giorgio, I-50125 Firenze. Tel: (39-55) 2342710 - fax: 2346010 -Email: staff@lelettere.it - Internet: http://www.lelettere.it ). January-March 2010, No. 305, 160 pp., €15. Subscription: €60 (Italy), €70 (abroad).
In this edition of this interesting Italian publication that has existed for 75 years, Alessandro Isoni focuses on an article exploring the influences of the “third way” movement on the concept of the European Community of Coal and Steel, particularly the High Authority. Political scientist, Barbara Pisciotta, (University of Rome III) tackles the process of democratisation in Central and Eastern Europe and also seeks to measures the influence played by the Union in this respect. There are also contributions on transatlantic relations, in the sphere of global governance, the influence of religion on foreign policy in the US (for Youri Devuyst, the thinking of Barack Obama has been shaped by secular European social democratic leaders such as Willy Brandt, Olof Palme and Gro Harlem Brundtland), the place of religion in the economy and the language used by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.(MT)