*** SIR JULIAN PRIESTLEY: European Political parties: the missing link / Les partis politiques européens: le chaînon manquant. Notre Europe (19 rue de Milan, F-75009 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 44589797 - Fax: 44589799 - email: info@notre-europe.eu - Internet: http://www.notre-europe.eu ). "Policy Paper" series, No. 41. 2010, 66 pp.
Since it was set up back in 1996, the Notre Europe thinktank created by Jacques Delors to study European unity has paid great attention to the tricky relationship (that is unfortunately becoming no less tricky over time) between Europeans and the European institutions. The latest Political Paper bears witness to this continuity because it explores various options that might encourage greater citizen involvement in the European elections. The association that lost its chairman, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, at far too young an age, clearly knocked at the right door when it approached Julian Priestley to make a diagnosis and suggest suitable medicine. He was the secretary general of the European Parliament from 1997 to 2007, which gives him an impressive degree of expertise in such matters.
In this bilingual publication (which reads better in the original English), Julian Priestley works as a gold prospector, first locating the failures of the European political parties which, some twenty years after the Maastricht Treaty that recognised their key role in the European integration process, remain pathetically unable 'to carry out fully their vital role as the link between the political institutions of the European Union and public opinion.' As far as public opinion is concerned, European political parties are 'to a large extent closed, unrecognised clearing houses' and 'empty shells' because 'their policy formation is essentially a technical exercise with often insipid, lowest common denominators of the policies of the competent national parties the inevitable outcome.' Should this come as a surprise? No, because the sole job of the governing bodies of European political parties, which are 'confederal by nature,' is 'to be about providing a European platform for parades of national party leaders.' Should one find this irritating? Most definitely, and Julian Priestley certainly does in the following pages as he hones, explains and justifies his criticisms, sparing none of the political parties, not even the socialist group to which the author, a British Labour man, belongs.
Overall, his diagnosis is convincing but the most important points are made in connection with the 'four modest reforms' suggested by way of conclusion. Firstly, he makes a passionate case that 'individual members should be recognised by the European parties' in that activists should be able to join the European parties of their choice, paying subscriptions and participating in decision-making at European level. The author explains that this would entail a second reform, 'to strengthen democracy directly and indirectly within the European parties.' Party congresses should become genuine democratic decision-making arenas where all members (rather than only the national leaders) 'should approve by secret ballot the programme and the manifesto' for the European elections. The author says this would not only boost the feeling of belonging and identifying with a party's programme, but 'would stimulate members to campaign for the party in the elections.' The third reform he sets out is for European political parties to designate a candidate for president of the European Commission chosen by direct election. This would have a beneficial impact in several ways. Firstly, it would give renewed impetus to the electioneering for the European elections by mobilising activists and, most likely, voters alike. Next, the democratic legitimacy this would give Barroso's successor at the helm of the European Commission would give him or her greater power in relation to the European Council (the Member States), 'which in the view of those attached to supranational institutions and the Community Method will simply enable some of the prestige and authority that the Commission has lost over the years to be clawed back.' Thirdly, Julian Priestley even suggests that as happens in the United States, these direct elections should be open to all voters, which would guarantee citizen mobilisation. The author has no illusions -these three ideas aimed at breathing more democracy into the work of the European political parties are not popular as one goes up the hierarchies of national political parties, hierarchies anxious to remain in control. All the same, this is clearly the right way to go if one wishes to carry the fourth reform, namely to hone the ideology offered by European politician parties. Without a doubt, the battle sketched out by Julian Priestley deserves to be fought. Michel Theys
*** ALESSIO CORNIA: Notizie da Bruxelles. Logiche e problemi della costruzione giornalistica dell'Unione europea. FrancoAngeli (106 viale Monza, I-20127 Milan. Tel: (39-2) 2837141 - Fax: 2613268 - Email: magazzino@francoangeli.it - Internet: http://www.francoangeli.it ). Sociologia series. 2010, 184 pp, €23. ISBN 978-88-568-1792-8.
The same is seen in all European Union countries. The media, particularly the broadcast media but also newspapers and magazines (apart from the broadsheets and high quality magazines), provide bad coverage of EU events. This book confirms that Italy is no exception to the rule. Why is Europe seen as a subject of such little merit for many types of journalism and outlets? What causes the problematic relationship between the EU Institutions and authorised reporters and foreign correspondents in Brussels? How are national affairs treated differently from European affairs in the media? It was to answer questions like these (and plenty more besides) that researcher Alessio Cornia of the Institutions and Society Department of Perugia University immersed himself in the world of Italian correspondents in Brussels from 2004 to 2007, studying the nature of the 'Brussels bubble,' the problems facing journalists at the European Commission (which runs the media show where there is plenty of information but a dearth of politics, he explains),and problems with the Council of Ministers with its competing sources and the European Parliament that suffers from low media visibility. The author ends by looking at how Italian correspondents strike a balance between competition and collaboration, and the way they (like other foreign correspondents) tend to feel abandoned. The lessons of this book clearly apply to much wider circles than Italian journalists… (MT)
*** CHRISTIAN JOERGES: Unity in Diversity as Europe's Vocation and Conflicts Law as Europe's Constitutional Form. Institut für Höhere Studien / Institute for Advanced Studies (Department of Political Science, Universität Bremen, 56 Stumpergasse, A-1060 Vienna. Tel: (43-1) 59991-237 - Fax: 59991-555 - Email: library@ihs.ac.at - Internet: http://www.ihs.ac.at ). Reihe Politikwissenschaft / Political Science Series, No. 122. 2010, 44 pp, €8.
Professor of European and private law at Bremen University, Christian Joerges defends in his research the idea that the motto of unity in diversity should be retained in the new European constitutional set-up despite the death of the draft Constitutional Treaty. He said it is needed 'to respond to the increasing interdependence of formerly more autonomous legal orders.' To illustrate his ideas, the author takes two examples - 'the conflict between European economic freedoms and national labour law' arising in recent European Court of Justice rulings on the Laval, Viking and Rüffert cases and the European Court of Justice's decision to assert the supremacy of European economic freedoms being seen by some as 'a counter-productive deepening of European constitutional asymmetry and Europe's social deficit,' the second example being the environmental battle between the Czech Republic and Austria over the Temelin nuclear power station. Christian Joerges criticises the rationalism of the Court of Justice judges but does not suggest any alternatives to their rulings, his aim being to set out approaches that he says would meet regulatory and transnational governance needs (MT)
*** Questions internationales. Internet à la conquête du monde. La Documentation française (29-31 quai Voltaire, F-75007 Paris cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 40157010 - Fax: 40157001 - Email: commande@ladocumentationfrancaise.fr - Internet: http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr ). January-Feburary 2011, No. 47, 126 pp, €9-80. Annaul subscription: €48 (France), €53.90 (elsewhere in Europe), €55-90 (outside Europe).
With its delightful and aesthetically pleasing layout, the articles backed by useful explanatory boxes, maps and graphics, the first 2011 issue of this bimonthly review has a detailed special report on how the Internet has conquered the world. It has transformed civil society, politics and culture and has also turned relationships between countries upside-down because cyberspace is a new theatre of geological conflict (cyber-jihad) and an arena for debate and social protest. These questions are all studied in this issue. The usual "Questions Européennes" column contains two very interesting articles, the first by political scientist Michel Sallé, looking in detail at the highly problematic backdrop to Iceland's request to join the European Union, and the second by scientist Jean-Robert Henry analysing the huge problem encountered by Europe in considering relations with southern neighbours. The author points out the shrinking of the EU's Mediterranean prospects and the way that under pressure from its security obsessions, Europe has divorced the economic area from the human area. This uncompromising analysis also criticises the hold of 'country-based ideas' within the European Union. (MT)
*** MICHAL KUBAT: Political Opposition in Theory and Central European Practice. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Prager Schriften zur Zeitgeschichte und zum Zeitgeschehen," No. 3. 2010, 193 pp, €32-50. ISBN 978-3-631-59181-9.
A member of the Russian and East European Studies Department at Charles University and senior lecturer at the New York University in Prague, Michal Kubát makes an analysis in this book of the theory of political opposition. Following on from Duverger and Sartori, he spends the first part of the book developing a theoretical approach to the matter, adding his own observations, controversial at times. He makes a strict differentiation between democracies and non-democratic regimes, spending more time on the former and looking in particular at the development of political oppositions, their legal foundations and their work, along with the models and types found in this domain. He specifically looks at extremist and/or anti-Semitic political opposition. In the second part of the book, Michal Kubát examines how opposition is manifested in practice in Central Europe, focussing on the four Višegrad Group countries of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Here too, he pays particular attention to extremist opposition groups. (PBo)
*** PETR DRULAK, MATS BRAUN (Eds.): The Quest for the National Interest. A Methodological Reflection on Czech Foreign Policy. Peter Lang (see above). 2010, 210 pp, €32.50. ISBN 978-3-631-59663-0.
As Prof. Petr Drulák of Charles University in Prague, where he heads the International Relations Institute, points out at the start of the introduction, 'the concept of national interest is among the most widely used and abused concepts in the foreign policy debate.' The authors of this collection of essays are all political scientists active in the Czech Republic, trying the clarify the quest for national interest based on three criteria, namely the relevance of the idea of 'national interest,' the national consensus on which it is based and, finally, how it is accepted abroad. The authors apply these three criteria to the Czech Republic's foreign policy using four methodologies - case studies, analysing speeches, theory and ethnography. The subjects studied are the focus of Czech foreign policy and therefore there are five chapters on EU issues, namely the EU environment policy, the future of the European integration process, EU enlargement and two essays on the European Neighbourhood Policy. One of the book's conclusions is that the Czech Republic rarely has the ability to define and pursue its national interest when it has to take key foreign policy decisions. (PBo)
*** Causeur. Causeur.fr (9 rue Léopold-Robert, F-75014 Paris. Email: info@causeur.fr - Internet: /http://www.causeur.fr ). February 2011, No. 32, 31 pp, €4-5. Annual subscription: €45.
This monthly publication started online and is still updated and very active in daily life. Tinged with French intellectualism, it is characterised by the wide diversity of views expressed, although the main spirit is of a rather conservative reflection circle. This issue includes an interview with former EU Commissioner Bolkestein arguing that multiculturalism is dead and a special report on the 'Republic of the indignant' where one of the authors is philosopher Alain Finkielkraut.
(MT)