*** L'Europe en formation. Revue d'études sur la construction européenne et le fédéralisme - Journal of Studies on European Integration and Federalism. Centre international de formation européenne (10 av. des Fleurs, F-06000 Nice. Tel: (33-4) 93979397 - fax: 93979398 - Email: europe.formation@cife.eu - Internet: http://www.europeenformation.eu ). 2012, No. 366, 168 pp. €20. Subscription: €50. La diffusion de l'Europe en formation sur Internet est assurée par la plateforme de revues scientifiques électroniques Cairn.info à l'adresse http://www.cairn.info/revue-l-europe-en-formation.htm
This issue of the journal set up by Alexandre Marc, unashamed advocate of a totally federalist approach, largely focuses on the 50th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty. For many of our contemporaries and not only young people, this treaty will mean absolutely nothing. Others, perhaps, have had a tendency to over exaggerate its scope, following the orchestral manoeuvres that German political leaders and even more so, their French counterparts, have been so keen to arrange to celebrate this anniversary. This explains the undeniable interest of the contributions contained in this volume. These essays help demolish the myths constructed about this treaty and therefore help us learn some very useful lessons for today or rather for this period where the “Franco-German engine” has been misfiring.
By examining the Elysée treaty from “a European point of view”, Hartmut Marhold, the director general of the International Centre for European Training, denounces the “mistaken myths”, which deliberately distort historical veracity. The first of these myths and perhaps the most contemporary involves the French ambassador in Germany providing assurances on his website that the treaty signed by General de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer on 22 January 1963, “created the foundations of lasting peace in Europe”. The Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, therefore is totally forgotten but it was this that promised to make, “any war between France and Germany… not only unthinkable but materially impossible”. Alfred Grosser and Paul Collowald think that to forget this would be “absurd” and quote an extract from a letter sent by Adenauer to Schuman in September 1962, the day after General de Gaulle's triumphant visit to Germany, “during the visit of Gen de Gaulle, last week, I often thought of you as the man who, by way of the proposal for the European Community of Iron and Steel, placed the cornerstone of the friendship that now so closely unites our two countries”. This journalist subsequently points out that the Elysée Treaty only “sealed” the Franco-German reconciliation that had been “founded” ten years earlier by the Schuman Declaration. After emphasising that the, “Second World War had not been a Franco-German conflict but a war against Hitler”, Grosser, the pioneer of the Franco-German dialogue confirms this unreservedly and explains that thanks to Schuman “Jean Monnet was able to demonstrate his statesmanship”, namely, “someone who governs irrespective of how the polls judge them”. This historian and sociologist calls on his readers to imagine what would the answer have been to the following question: five years after the end of the war, do you want us to treat the recent Federal Republic on an equal footing? Posing the question is effectively already providing the answer to the question. However, is has not exactly been this kind of question that has guided European policy over recent years by many national leaders of the Union?
In reality, everything in this book confirms that the celebration of the Elysée Treaty has been used for ideological reasons, particularly in France: this is the European vision of the author of 18 June appeal that should be honoured on this occasion, that of Monnet and Schuman, rather than being left at the wayside of history. French history, in this case, not European history, because Hartmut Marhold and his fellow guardians of the past clearly demonstrate that the 50-year-old treaty is born out of the failure of the Plans Fouchet, which were rejected by the five other members of the Community Club who, to the great disappointment of General de Gaulle, never agreed to his, “strategy of containment” in the integration method initiated at the beginning of the 1950s. Marhold's conclusion is still entirely relevant today, “reconciliation and Franco-German friendship are only entirely meaningful when they are at the service of European construction and when they are inspired by the founding fathers - French above all but also German, within the Community method”.
In an emotional homage paid to Helmut Schmidt, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing recalls a few episodes from what this former Chancellor called, “the Golden age of Franco-German relations”. In an effort to bring this to life once again, Babette Nieder puts forward ideas that would allow for the “Franco-German engine” to restart. Fellow contributors explore the mechanisms and the potential of putting this back at the service of European construction, which should, as soon as possible, cease to be exclusively a matter of reductive technocratic management. Will they be able to find anybody in the circles of power in Paris or Berlin who can answer them by saying, “I understand what you mean”?
Michel Theys
*** GILLES LE BAIL: L'Europe: défaite ou défis. Editions Fortuna (4 rue des Cordes, B-7500 Tournai. Email: editionsfortuna@gmail.com - Internet: http://www.editionsfortuna.net ). 2012, 125 pp. €14 . ISBN 978-2-930424-75-0.
This short book is above all a cry of anger and heartache and the testimony of frustration. Someone who distinguishes himself as an “acknowledged actor from French civil society” expresses his despondency at being a convinced European because he is outraged by the prevarication and excuses of those who have been in charge of leading the European Union to the ultimate stage of the Federation of nation states as proposed by Jacques Delors. The author thunders that, “if the European Union does not want to join the ranks of the losers” from globalisation, “it must commit to an ambitious federal dynamic”. The author lists the areas where political leaders have failed to do their duty and have subsequently become bedfellows of populists, nationalists and other extremists from both the right and left. He exclaims that defining, “a model and the instruments to live together rather than to devote ourselves to mastering border control” is an urgent matter and he attacks the fact that immigration has been castigated as something horrible despite the fact that labour shortages can already be seen on the horizon. This explains his subsequent appeal to consider, “mobility as a public good to defend, to accompany and to make secure in an effort to ensure positive repercussions in countries of migration and in the countries where migrants choose to settle”. He asks for a different perspective to be adopted because Tunisian nurses and Chinese and Indian engineers who are unemployed in their home countries would be very useful in Europe. He particularly calls on Europe to reconnect with its humanist values and provide itself with the possibility of tasting the fruit of enhanced cooperation in all the different areas, which should particularly be done by way of introducing the European tax and through European elections that are less national and more European. He concludes that, “the crisis will not end after the final financial saga but rather, when a European Constitution manages to adjust political institutions to the situation encompassing the political, economic and identity questions that fashion the daily life of Europeans”. There should be no doubt about it, his appeal is perfectly appropriate. It is a shame, however, that the style of the book is a bit botched and the author does not always successfully avoid the trap of considering France, together with Germany, as having the eternal vocation of ensuring “European leadership” which, given the present period, can only bring a smile to the lips of the reader…
(MT)
*** THOMAS COTTIER (editor): Die Europakompatibilität des schweizerischen Wirtschaftsrechts: Konvergenz und Divergenz. Helbing Lichtenhahn Verlag (8 Elisabethenstrasse, CH-4051 Basle. Tel: (41-61) 2289070 - fax: 2289071 - Email: info@helbing.ch - Internet: http://www.helbing.ch ). Series « Bibliothek zur Zeitschrift für Schweizerisches Recht », supplement No. 50. 2012, 128 pp. ISBN 978-3-7190-3302-6.
This supplement of the Swiss review, written by a number of legal professors, tackles the issue of the compatibility of Swiss and Community law. Following an introduction by Thomas Cottier and Rachel Liechti, Matthias Oesch describes the Europeanization of Swiss law. In the part of the publication written in French, Emilie Kohler seeks to tackle the issue of European law and how it is interpreted in its Swiss equivalent. Another author, David Herren, outlines the principles resulting from the “Cassis de Dijon” decision in Swiss law and their similarities and differences with regard to European law following Case 120/78 and the decision in this respect by the European Court of Justice on 20 February 1979. Ralf Imstepf looks at the question of the influence exerted by European law on Swiss legislation in the tax arena and value-added tax. Monique Sturny finishes off by looking at the influence wielded by European law in the area of cartels in the context of Switzerland.
(SH)
*** Dokumente / Documents. Zeitschrift für den deutsch-französischen Dialog / Revue du dialogue franco-allemand. Verlag Dokumente (86 Dottendorfer Strasse, D-53129 Bonn. Tel: (49-228) 92129365 - fax: 690385 - E-mail: aboservice@dokumente-documents.info - Internet: http://www.dokumente-documents.info ). 2012, No 4, 194 p. €10. Subscription: €18.90. This special edition in the review founded by Jean du Rivau focuses almost entirely on the 50th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty. (MT)