*** DAVID NATALI, BART VANHERCKE (Eds.): Bilan social de l'Union européenne 2011. Thirteenth Annual Report. European Trade Union Institute (5 Bld du Roi Albert II, B-1210 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2240470 - Fax: 2240502 - email: etui@etui.org - Internet: http://www.etui.org ). 2012, 302 pp, €20. ISBN 978-2-87452-269-7.
Not as well written as in previous years, this social affairs balance sheet for 2011, commissioned of the European Social Observatory by the European Trade Union Institute and the European Trade Union Confederation, is as pertinent as ever in terms of content and particularly so in that the troubled period we are going through gives little visibility to the arguments made by researchers close to the trade union movement and, more widely, political forces wanting to protect what has been won on the social front. It is exactly this type of leftist analysis of the European social model and the crisis management undergone by the European Union that is found in these pages. The analysis is clearly critical, sometimes severely so, but the authors aim to be constructive and demonstrate that alternative solutions and policies than those being applied in the EU today not only exist, but should urgently be assumed if one wants to prevent the European integration project from falling apart at the seams under the combined pressure of disillusion among citizens, populism and nation state selfishness.
Why hasn't Europe yet overcome the crisis? What could prevent it experiencing new deficits of legitimacy? How can it emerge from the current problems stronger than before? These are examples of the big issues running through these essays. In the first part of the book, trends in the governance of social and economic questions are examined. Giuliano Amato and Yves Mény, for example, paint a very gloomy picture of the various institutional changes in the European Union last year. In a similar spirit, Patrick Diamond and Roger Liddle dissect economic governance against the backdrop of the sovereign debt crisis, while Christophe Degryse and Philippe Pochet show that the solutions would must follow the 'path of environmentally-friendly and sustainable growth.' The second part of the book examines the impact of the crisis on a number of policies. Marjorie Jouen demonstrates that the Structural Funds have not been used sufficiently to lessen the impact of the crisis because of the introduction of conditions and the EU budget being subject to the 'golden rule' of budget stability. Stephan Clauwaert and Christophe Degryse look at the role of the social partners, which leads them to comment on the tense atmosphere prevailing in social dialogue, which is so intense that it is a threat to the dialogue itself. Examining the future prospects for welfare systems, Rita Baeten and Sarah Thomson point out that the contradictions in the Stability and Growth Pact are connected with the reappearance of populism in some Member States. Ramón Pena-Casas gives a critical interpretation of the Open Coordination Method, while Dalila Ghailani dissects Court of Justice case law on working time, anti-discrimination, equal treatment and flexicurity. Finally, David Natali looks at the dangers facing the trade union movement today and workers and citizens more generally, analysing the provocative statements of the governor of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, who has commented that the European social model is already dead.
As an illustration of the merits of this series of essays and saving the best for last, I will comment on the essay by the former Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, and Prof. Yves Mény, who detect a 'United Nations-isation' of the European Union. They criticise the use under Merkozy of rules of international law that give States sovereignty over dogma, the right to veto being even more pernicious these days because it is no longer the remit of countries alone, but regions, parliaments, supreme courts and even citizens themselves can at times dictate 'what is possible, acceptable or not allowed.' By means of the institutional stopgap measures it accumulated under Merkozy, Europe had left a 'baroque heritage that can only work with the aid and the solid imagination of a whole army of super-specialist lawyers,' giving rise to the victory of a 'strange type of shrunken inter-governmentalism reduced to Franco-German tête-à-têtes' but Mario Monti and Mariano Rajoy have now put an end to this with the active complicity of François Hollande), along with the far less visible victory of 'federalism without democratic legitimacy or solidarity' which governments have had to resign themselves to in order to protect the single currency. Might European countries, or those of the eurozone at least, soon be forced to stop unwillingly implementing a shameful, hidden federalism and drop the current bad approach for good? If not, then the future for the EU may well be bleak, warn Amato and Mény, consisting of 'revolt by people hurt by the crisis who see the 'gnomes' of Brussels as responsible for their fate.' Journalistic exaggeration? No, just the unblinkered realism of a politician and an academic!
Michel Theys
*** PEKKA AALTO: Public Liability in EU Law. Brasserie, Bergaderm and Beyond. Hart Publishing (16C 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, No. 27. 2011, 240 pp, £65. ISBN 978-1-84946-133-7.
This thesis for the law faculty of Turku University in Finland was written by Pekka Aalto when he was working at the European Commission's legal department, and was completed when he became Legal Secretary to Niilo Jääskinen, Advocate General at the European Court of Justice. The author examines the way civil liability law converges between the EU and the Member States' legal systems. He focuses on the two principal legal criteria common to both levels, namely the granting of rights to individuals and the notion of sufficiently serious breach of such rights. His analysis focuses on changes in European Court of Justice case law since the Bergadem ruling of 2000, which consolidated the convergence initiated by the Francovich, Brasserie du Pêcheur and Factortame rulings. The analysis shows that total convergence is unlikely, but European and national case law is expected to merge more actively.
(PBo)
*** LOTTE MEURKENS, EMILY NORDIN (Eds.): The Power of Punitive Damages. Is Europe Missing Out? Intersentia Publishing (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel. Tel: (32-3) 6801550 - Fax: 6587121 - email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). Ius Commune Europaeum series, No. 101. 2012, 531 pp, €95. ISBN 978-1-78068-047-7.
Legal systems on the Continent take little notice of the punitive damages awarded in the United States, sometimes granting victims millions of dollars. Many people say that the award of punitive damages is not a priority in Europe, but should 'remain part of the public law domain,' and punitive damages should 'in no way be utilised to protect private law interests'. All the same, given that the difference between public law and private law is fading, European lawyers have started to consider the US approach as a 'way to strengthen tort law.' This was examined at the annual conference of the Ius commune research institute in November 2010, the proceedings of which are published in this book. It opens with a broad-brush description of US law in this domain, explaining the reasons for punitive damages and why continental Europe is paying increased attention to the matter. Four US authors describe the punitive damages system in the United States, with other writers describing the common law systems of Australia, England and Wales, and the mixed legal system in Cyprus. The debate surrounding damages these days is examined in the light, for example, of the situation in Belgium, Germany, France and Spain. Other authors consider the matter in the domains of human rights, family law, insurability, bad faith insurers, contract law, enforcement of European Community competition law and also, from a wider perspective, business law. Twenty-two different analyses that certainly do not all concur with one another, but will clearly be of great value to people having to decide on such matters.
(MT)
*** Social Agenda. DG Employment (InfoCentre, B-1049 Brussels. Fax: (32-2) 2962396 - Internet: http://www.ec.europa.eu/social/contact ). 2012, No. 29, 28 pp. This issue includes a special report on population ageing. (MT)