*** CECILE LECONTE: Understanding Euroscepticism. Palgrave Macmillan (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, UK. Tel: (44-1256) 329242 - Fax: 479476 - email: orders@palgrave.com - Internet: http://www.palgrave.com ). "The European Union Series," 2010, 307 pp. ISBN 978-0-230-22807-8.
A child in 1985 of the highly conservative UK newspaper The Times, barely three years before Margaret Thatcher delivered a speech at the College of Europe of which Europe would bear the scars for a very long time, the neologism 'Euroscepticism,' and more specifically the nickname with which its servants soon adorned themselves, 'Eurosceptic,' have now found their way into European jargon. Surely, however, these are many-faceted words that take on very different meanings depending on the country or region of Europe in question. Europeans' disillusion with the European Union is supposed to be still on the rise, as suggested by the 'No' votes in the referendums in France and the Netherlands on the draft constituent and in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty, not to mention the very low turnout at the European elections, and this question must therefore be posed because the answers to it will fashion the future and the present (given the type of decisions being taken at the moment) of the European project. Political analyst Cécile Leconte had the insight to write a book on this very issue which will clearly become a reference in this domain given its in-depth analysis and scientific rigour.
The author makes a considerable achievement with this book because the concept of Euroscepticism is vague and complex. The idea arose in the United Kingdom, where the author explains that it 'refers to a form of cultural anti-Europeanism broader than EU-scepticism,' and shows that it is not (or no longer) found solely in the UK, but what it means varies according to the country where it is used, not to mention the time factor. Senior lecturer in politics at the European Studies Department at Lille University in France, Cecile Leconte demonstrates very convincingly that Euroscepticism is 'very plastic' and 'like populism, it is compatible with any ideological position,' from the far left to the far right because it is not in any way an 'ideology'. This multi-faceted word is a catch-all notion because people described as Eurosceptics often have very different backgrounds and motivations. The author pertinently explains that the idea of 'subsidiarity' does not have the same meaning when used in Altiero Spinelli's draft Constitution in 1984, which was the cornerstone of a federal Europe, as it does in the 2009 programme of the CSU party in Bavaria, Germany, where it is 'a code word for the repatriation of EU powers to states or regions.' Likewise, some 'hard Eurosceptics' come into the category of Europhobes because they are hostile to the very idea of European integration, but the author focuses to a greater extent in the book on 'soft Eurosceptics,' in other words people who are happy that their country is part of the EU, but are hostile or at least reluctant to go along with the political arrangements underlying EU action.
In ten highly reader-friendly chapters (in which the author demonstrates it is possible for an academic to take a scientific look at a highly complex issue without indulging in obscure jargon), Cécile Leconte gives a very convincing and balanced analysis of Euroscepticism from various points of view - the élite, political parties, voters, the media, national and Europeans institutions and civil society - to draw up the most detailed and reliable picture. In the concluding chapter, she sets out three different scenarios for the direction Euroscepticism might go down in the future. The first is 'marginalization' because, as was shown by the Libertas party in the last European elections, Euroscepticism does not easily cross borders due to its diverse nature, not to mention the fact that the Lisbon Treaty introduced some reforms that cut the ground from under its feet. The second scenario is the 'mainstreaming' of Eurosceptic ideas by traditional political parties in the Member States, which allow themselves to be contaminated by Euroscepticism. The third scenario is 'reformist reorientation' which would consist of domestic reforms, given that Eurosceptics cannot provide a viable alternative, to strengthen the connection with European - and this is something the Lisbon Treaty has already started to do. The author then gives three possible answers for the EU to give to the challenges posed by the Eurosceptics. The most credible of them, of course, would be to clarify exactly what the ultimate aim of the European project is, but today's European politicians, or some of them at least, are unlikely to want to follow the path traced by Robert Schuman in his founding declaration, stating that the ultimate aim is a European Federation. They should realise that if they refuse, then they run the risk of playing into the hands of the Eurosceptics…
Michel Theys
*** NATHANIEL COPSEY, TIM HAUGHTON (Eds): The JCMS Annual Review of the European Union in 2009. State of the Union: The Financial Crisis and the ECB'S Response 2007-09. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing (The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK. Tel: (44-1243) 779777 - Fax: 775878 - Email: customer@wiley.co.uk - Internet: http://www.wiley.com ). 2010, 285 pp. ISBN 978-1-4051-9703-8.
This is the second Journal of Common Market Studies' Annual Review and 2009 was a year packed with events likely to revolutionise the way the European project is run and the editors therefore rightly ask whether 2009 was a turning point for Europe. They explain that in the future, people looking back to 2009 may see it as a turning point in European capitalism and there is no guarantee that solidarity in the eurozone will pull through. It is for good reason, then that the special column on the state of the Union goes this time to Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, who explains the way the ECB in Frankfurt responded to the financial and economic crisis that swept across the world. The year 2009, however, saw the Lisbon Treaty come into force (in December) which is likely to have a considerable impact on how the EU develops in the future. In this connection, Prof. Kalypso Nicolaidis of Oxford University argues that the time of inter-institutional spats must come to an end so that Europeans, along with their political leaders, can finally ensure sustainable integration by radically shifting their attention from discreet intergovernmental agreements to public inter-societal agreements, from short-term international agreements to long-term intergenerational agreements. On the Lisbon Treaty, Tony Barber, head of the Financial Times' office in Brussels, looks at how Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton were selected, leading him to point out the problems of reaching the necessary compromises among twenty-seven countries headed by governments of different political colourings. He makes a judgement that is generally shared by the other authors of this book to the effect that the success of the Lisbon Treaty in terms of creating a more effective and efficient European Union hangs on a quality that was absent when the Lisbon Treaty was being drawn up, namely political will. An irrefutable comment!
(MT)
*** MORTEN RASMUSSEN, ANN-CHRISTINA L. KNUDSEN (Eds.): The Road to a United Europe. Interpretations of the Process of European Integration. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: pie@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Euroclio" series, No. 48. 2009, 380 pp, €37-70. ISBN 978-90-5201-560-6.
One cannot praise highly enough the excellent move by the promoters of the Richie network ('Réseau International de Jeunes Chercheurs en Histoire de l'Intégration Européenne') and this new collection of essays following on from a productive conference in Copenhagen in December 2006 shows that the young researchers, most of them doctoral students, are able to take a new look at the events of near and distant history connected with the building of the European Community. Several of the essays in this innovative book explore largely unknown historical territory, providing useful nuances to the overall picture. The book is organised around five topics listed in his day by the great British historian Alan S. Milward as crucial to proper understanding of the European project. The first part looks at the role that the idea of Europe was able to play as a motor force in post-war Europe. Carol Bergami looks at the 'roots and scope of French-style pluralist Europeanism' in the light of the Proudhon heritage, while François-Xavier Lafféach makes a new exploration of the role played by 'Jeunesse Européenne Fédéraliste' in the rise of European awareness. The other two essays in this section look at what Jean Monnet thought of General de Gaulle's return to power in 1958 and Edward Heath's European views. The second section studies the truth of the claim that European integration helped save the nation state, in the light of the impact of the first years of the Common Agricultural Policy in France, the unsuccessful strategy pursued by the UK of trying to get the Commonwealth to join the European Economic Community, and the European policy pursued by the great West German coalition at the end of the 1960s. In the third section, the authors examine 'European integration as part of and also a response to globalisation in the international economy' in the light of the United States' military aid to Italy after the Second World War, the European diplomatic reaction to the first Petrol Crisis and the British and German trade unions' social demands in the 1980s and 1990s. The fourth section looks at European integration 'as typical foreign policy,' with some essays looking at the empty chair crisis and the start of European political cooperation. The final section examines integration from the angle of new policies - information, culture, the environment, sexual equality and so on - launched after 1958 under the impulse of the European Institutions.
(MT)
*** ERIC BUSSIERE, EMILIE WILLAERT: Un projet pour l'Europe. Georges Pompidou et la construction européenne. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see above). "Georges Pompidou - Archives" series, No. 4. 2010, 447 pp, €38-90. ISBN 978-90-5201-596-5.
Written by two famous historians, this book includes documents that explain the philosophy and action of Georges Pompidou as prime minister of France under General de Gaulle and then taking over from de Gaulle as president of the country. The first section looks at expressions of his European ideas (in the preface, Jean-René Bernard, one of his closest collaborators, points out that at a very young age, Georges Pompidou felt the urgency for a European organisation and this led him in the 1930s to join the only organisation he ever joined, the respected Coudenove-Kalergi pan-European Union) when, as prime minister, he was face-to-face with the Europe of General de Gaulle. In fact, the book clearly demonstrates that European affairs, even under the General, were an area where the prime minister had the ability, over time, to expand his activity and gain autonomy. The two historians point out that this was Pompidou's desire, his autonomy coinciding with the empty chair crisis, and the authors show that the claim that Pompidou simply continued with General de Gaulle's European policies, adjusting them to the circumstances, is 'a distorted over-simplification' because although the two politicians agreed that the aim of the European project should be political rather than economic, the action of the one led to rejection of the Fouchet Plan and the other achieved the launch of Political Cooperation, well before the common foreign and security policy. Clearly, state Eric Bussière and Emilie Willaert, this leap forward by Pompidou was nothing but the outcome of an 'attempt to renew on the most careful prudent tactical and institutional foundations, the General's idea of a political Europe'. They also note that Pompidou's European ideas were 'more thought-out' than the General's because he combined prudent implementation in line with the economic and political situation of that time with a longer-term intellectual and political aim. By way of a conclusion, the two men argue that Georges Pompidou belonged to the category of state officials who want to control and guide a process whose driving force they recognised. Jean-René Bernard points out that Pompidou "was the first to come up with the term 'European Union'"…
(MT)
*** GEORGE MAUDE: Aspects of the Governing of the Finns. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Studies in Modern European History," No. 66. 2010, 314 pp, €54-20. ISBN 978-1-4331-0713-9.
Author of the Historical Dictionary of Finland, published in 2006, George Maude has now published research into both the political impact and the economic impact of certain domestic and international forces in Finland, looking at the country's contemporary history, from the Bolshevik Russian Revolution in 1918 to joining the European Union and what he sees as today's concerns about ever more invasive capitalism.
(PBo)