*** MICHAEL DOUGAN, NIAMH NIC SHUIBHNE, ELEANOR SPAVENTA (Eds.): Empowerment and Disempowerment of the European Citizen. 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” series, No. 35. 2012, 319 pp, £52. ISBN 978-1-84946-235-8.
The fruit of long collaboration between Dublin, Edinburgh and Liverpool Universities, this book edited by three European law professors and written entirely by lawyers argues its case in depth based on the ever repeated allegation that European citizens are genuinely at the centre of European Union legislation and EU policies. Against the backdrop of the crisis and citizen disenchantment, are citizens' concerns really taken into account as much at those of national and European politicians or even European Court of Justice judges? That is one of the burning questions running throughout the essays in this book. The scientific answers to this question are solidly documented and some are extremely disturbing in that they demonstrate that there's many a slip twixt cup and lip...
The book is divided into four sections. In the first, three authors ask whether the European Union is a catalyst for the building of new areas and identities, leading Charlotte O'Brien of York University to point out that Member States and the EU alike sit ill at ease with the idea of cross-border 'European Territorial Cooperation Groupings,' some for fear of losing some of their sovereignty and others because such initiatives reflect local identities and are therefore not European by nature. This first sour comment is nothing in comparison with those that follow. The second part of the book examines whether the institutions genuinely turn big principles into action - and there is little to be cheerful about in the subject matter. Prof. Deirdre Curtin of Amsterdam University and the Utrecht School of Governance shows that the principles of openness and transparency that the European institutions never stop talking amount at best to 'translucidity,' because the comitology and the way the Commission operates, along with the three-way meetings and pressure from the Member States bear witness to the fact that facts are often hidden More seriously, Prof. Bruno De Witte of Maastricht University and the European University Institute in Florence takes a hefty dig at the European Court of Justice, which is guilty of not defending citizens' interests as it should. He says the Court of Justice judges inevitably only judge the outcome of the work of the European legislator, thereby biasing the facts so that all too often, there is no recognition of the fact that in some cases, decisions reflect a political choice of one of two hermetically sealed alternatives. He says the solution could be to publish minority dissident opinions that shed light on the majority decision. In a more theoretical manner, Prof. Michelle Everson of London University also has a go at the Court of Justice for only viewing European citizens as homo economicus…
The third section of the book examines important policy areas and makes the most devastating attacks in the book. Fabian Amtenbrink of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, for example, points out that monetary union does not serve the cause of European citizenship or inter-European solidarity in any way, with the current eurozone crisis even tending to damage these two areas by establishing an atmosphere in which criticism outstrips disinterest. His investigation leads him to observe that although citizens appreciate aspects of the common good of economic and monetary union, they do not accept that European policies have a positive impact on their lives. He adds that the crisis, although forcing countries to demonstrate a degree of solidarity, does not force citizens to pull together, which is probably due to the virulent paradox that he describes in these deeply-felt virulent terms: 'Citizens are left with the impression - often based on the public statements by national politicians - that they have to pay the price for other Europeans' extravagant lifestyles. What is rarely explained is the fact that this is the natural outcome of an economic governance system set up by these same elected politicians.' CQFD! The remainder is less interesting. Joanne Scott of University College London demonstrates that the leadership of the European Union in the fight against climate change meets the desires of ordinary citizens but the opposition acting as a free agent in this matter believes it too has citizens behind it. Ester Herlin-Karnell of VU University of Amsterdam argues in her verification of whether citizen protection is in fact the European agenda's prime motivation in criminal law that protection of the individual often leaves much to be desired, and Helen Stalford of Liverpool University uses similar critical expertise in her analysis of cross-border family law.
The final section looks at new modes of citizen participation, with Luis Bouza of Robert Gordon University of Aberdeen and Graham Smith of Southampton University dedicating two essays to the Citizens' Imitative introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, and Matt Qvortrup of Cranfield University studying this in the light of experiences of a similar nature in a number of countries. It goes without saying that this final section is particularly interesting.
Michel Theys
*** LORENZ PLASSMANN: Comme dans une nuit de Pâques ? Les relations franco-grecques, 1944-1981. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Enjeux internationaux" series, No. 20. 2012, 461 pp, €53. ISBN 978-90-5201-769-3.
The Christian reference in the title of this book is related to the excitement surrounding the return in the night of 23 to 24 July 1974 of Constantin Caramanlis to Greece after eleven years of voluntary exile in Paris. The fruit of intensive research in the presidential archives of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in France and intimate knowledge of the period under study (from the highly problematic end of World War Two in Greece to 1981, when the country joined the European Union), along with knowledge of the key players, the book follows on from and summarises a doctoral thesis in history that reliably examines the ins and outs of how France accompanied Greece in that often chaotic period. The author sheds light on the gradual removal of France from Greek perception during the period, although bridges were never totally cut in terms of cultural, spiritual and philosophical affairs. An improvement occurs during the seven-year term of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing who, after having made the time of the Colonels live again 'with a particular literary delight,' - for which Pompidou demonstrated 'great prudence' explains Georges-Henri Soutou in the preface - along with the return of Caramanlis, Lorenz Plassmann shows how his successor at the Élysée Palace played a key role in forcing through acceptance of Greece joining the European Community as it was known at the time. The cultural argument was fundamental in his view, but he would have found it hard to convince his partners of this - and even many French people, who were hostile to Greece after Charles de Gaulle turned in favour of Turkey in 1964 in the course of the build-up to the Cypriot crisis. It was no use, however, as the author explains, Giscard wanted to make the arrival of Caramanlis in power 'the starting point for an independent European policy,' which translated into accelerated sales of military equipment to Athens and, a revelation by the author, the promise of support from France in the event of a crisis with Turkey, 'by means of accelerated supplies of material and possibly the sending of the French Navy into the Aegean Sea.' At the end of the day, this book demonstrates, as geo-politician Georges Prévélakis puts it, that the 'Franco-Greek geo-political complementarity based on a cultural and identity affinity,' remains a potential likely to allow the European Union 'to strike a better balance between its Mediterranean vocation and its Atlantic and Euro-Asiatic vocations.'
(MT)
*** NICOLAS HAYOZ, LESZEK JESIEN, DANIELA KOLEVA (Eds.): 20 Years after the Collapse of Communism. Expectations, achievements and disillusions of 1989. Peter Lang (1 Moostrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe," No. 9. 2011, 679 pp, €54-50. ISBN 978-3-0343-0538-9.
At a conference organised by the Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe at the University of Fribourg, political scientists, anthropologists, historians and literary critics specialising in culture and other philosophers discussed the breakdown of communism twenty years ago in the various concerned and also at regional level. This imposing volume reports on their work which, as the editors explain in the introductory chapters highlighting the fact that three roads were taken upon the fall of communism. The first group of countries opted for 'an accelerated transformation with Europe as an effective myth,' leading them to join the European Union and NATO. The second group is exemplified by the former Yugoslavia which, although it had been the closest to the West, plunged into violence (with the exception of Slovenia) and, to an extent, Croatia. Then there is the problematic case of countries which, like Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine, seem to have abandoned the path of transformation and cut themselves off from democratic Europe by cultivating authoritarian regimes. In the three sections of the book, the authors address firstly the 'ambiguities of unfinished transformations,' attempting to 'make sense of the past and its implications for the present, and finally deliberating over values and meanings in changing contexts.' In these pages, the authors observe that in the new EU Member States, 'democracy is sometimes practiced in a populist manner,' observing also that there can be democracies without democracy in this region, that Poland is an example of successful Europeanisation and that, for countries which are not guaranteed membership of the EU at the end of the day, 'where membership is not granted because of political reasons, the positive myth of Europe could become a negative one and the credibility of the EU could be at stake.' A mine of enlightening information's about a region that is still largely unknown!
(PBo)
*** RAIVO VETIK (Ed.): Nation-Building in the Context of Post-Communist Transformation and Globalization. The Case of Estonia. Peter Lang (see above). Baltische Studien zur Erziehungs- und Sozialwissenschaft series, No. 24. 2012, 328 pp, €49-80. ISBN 978-3-631-63524-7.
The nine authors of this book, all from academia, analyse various aspects of nation-building in Estonia when it gained independence in 1991, examining the matter in terms of politics and social affairs and analysing the conflicts that arose from the post-Communist heritage - the understanding that needed (and still needs) to be found between original Estonians and the community of Russian-speakers - and the impact of globalisation, which has proved an obstacle to the building of homogenous nations. By making a very detailed analysis of the areas of tension that were (and sometimes still are) found in this process, Prof. Vetik of Tallinn University and his fellow writers argue that 'national integration can progress only via the formation of a unifying identity in Estonia, embedded within democratic political processes.'
(PBo)
*** MARTA GRZECHNIK: Regional Histories and Historical Regions. The Concept of the Baltic Sea Region in Polish and Swedish Historiographies. Peter Lang (see above). "Geschichte Erinnerung Politik," No. 3. 2012, 185 pp, €39-80. ISBN 978-3-631-63172-0
In a way, the Hanseatic League was a prefiguration of the common border-free market, and the enthusiastic welcome by the Baltic States to the fall of the Soviet Empire gave a boost to the idea of a region united by common history. In order to examine what has become of this, Marta Grzechnik, lecturer at the Institute of Scandinavian Studies and Applied Linguistics at Gdansk University, examines in detail in this book how the three countries in the Baltic region were viewed between the wars by countries inside and outside the Iron Curtain, Poland and Sweden, which brings her to examine in a detailed manner the Polish struggle for Pomerania and the cautious attitude taken by Sweden after the First World War against the backdrop of the defunct empire and Scandinavian unity.
(PBo)
*** Erinnerungskultur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Analysen deutscher und polnischer Erinnerungsorte. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2011, 241 pp, €17-90. ISBN 978-3-631-61998-8.
In this book, the Insurrection Museum of Warsaw and the German association, Jugend bewegt Europa, active in ensuring better knowledge of cultural Europe, stress the historic links between Germany and Poland in the twentieth century. The book refers to a series of seminars jointly organised by the two countries and described at the start of the book. The first section of the book provides an analysis of nineteen areas of memorial located in Germany and Poland, most of which concern the Second World War, particularly the Shoah. The second part of the book contains five essays comparing the way the 'culture of remembrance' is seen and organised in the two countries, the main aim of the authors being to compare and contrast perceptions in this connection.
(SH)