*** MARCO ZINZANI: Market Integration through 'Network Governance'. The Role of European Agencies and Networks of Regulators. Intersentia (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. 110. 2012, 303 pp. €75, £71, $105. ISBN 978-1-78068-128-3.
Since the publication of the Prodi Commission's “White Paper on European Governance” in 2001, the European Union has demonstrated an obvious penchant for new mode of governance that create model networks. This is demonstrated in the setting up of member states' regulatory bodies that consist of a European level network and involve European agencies such as the European Food Safety Agency, the European Aviation Safety Agency and the European Medicines Agency. This politico-institutional development has drawn on the open method of coordination instead of the customary Community method, which many political scientists have also been eager to underline. This book and thesis defended at the University of Maastricht provides the foundations to a legal and critical assessment of this evolution.
What are the roles of these regulatory networks and other network agencies in the inter-institutional decision-making process given that these agencies were not included in the treaties and have therefore not formally been part of the category of Union institutions? Insofar as their decisions can have significant repercussions on the markets, how should their operations be monitored by the institutions and other stakeholders? Given the concerns about the compatibility of their activities with constitutional and administrative provisions in European law, “do they respect the principles of institutional balance of powers and good governance?” What are the commonalities and differences between the networks and agencies? These are some of the questions to which Marco Zinzani brings his legally precise and detailed answers and which are appropriately based on the institutional models that have over the years in the areas of energy and e- communications produced bodies such as the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (Acer) and the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (Berec). In this detailed study, it comes as no surprise that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to circumnavigate these kinds of organisations and that it is essential that the political world ensures that their rise in power is done so in respect of the principles of good governance because the legal foundations for this way of regulating the European markets is still a fragile area that requires further scrutiny.
Pierre Bouvier
*** CLAUDE BLUMANN (editor): Vers une politique européenne de l'énergie. Editions Bruylant (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - fax: 482693 - Email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). "Droit de l'Union européenne / Colloques" series, No. 18. 2012, 304 pp. €75. ISBN 978-2-8027-3590-8.
In the energy field, Community Europe has not been spared either the shock of the current energy crisis or those of the past. The Suez crisis in 1956 involved a total oil embargo on certain European countries and the oil crisis of 1973 and 1974 saw crude oil prices quadruple. Chernobyl saw nuclear energy discredited and more recently we have had gas and oil crises resulting from Moscow's posturing towards Ukraine and Belorussia. These are the kind of events that in the course of the history of European construction could have led to the development and implementation of a European energy policy worthy of the name. Nonetheless, this is not exactly what has transpired and the reasons for this failing are explained in this book by Professor Claude Blumann (Université Panthéon-Assas) in the general introductory report at the beginning. On the contrary, it proved necessary to wait until the Lisbon Treaty to launch a genuinely common policy in this area. Notwithstanding, this book and the scientific colloquy that preceded it in Paris two and a half years ago demonstrates that common action has actually been taken over the years. This book provides a precise reflection of the situation in which the Union finds itself today in this domain. The first part of the book focuses on the “ internal” considerations and a number of high-level scientific contributions draw up a balance sheet regarding the internal energy market, competition, energy efficiency, energy questions linked to the environment, the Commission's energy strategy and the liberalisation of the energy markets in Germany. In the context of “external” questions, Professor Eleftheria Neframi sketeches a panorama of the Union's relations in this area, while other contributions focus on the relationship with Russia, energy crisis management and trans-European gas pipeline projects. (MT)
*** LEONE NIGLIA (Editor): Pluralism and European Private Law. 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 ). 2013, 277 pp. £50. ISBN 978-1-84946-337-9.
Although many areas of European law, including constitutional law, are now open to a whole host of different influences, devotees of private law persist in conceptualising this around the ideas of unity and harmony. This book stems from a symposium organised by the European Legal Studies Centre at the University of Exeter and seeks to clarify these questions by providing three concurrent approaches to the question. In the first part, three authors put forward a critical reflection and incorporate the experiences of European private law with those prevailing in the constitutional domain. They call for the former to be tackled on the basis of a more pluralistic approach. In the second part, three other authors provide a detailed examination that is both comparative and historic with regard to the ongoing process promoting plurality in all legal areas, including private law. They provide an interesting insight into the work undertaken by the European courts, action by legislators and the way in which all the different actors, as well as the researchers, work at many different levels. Finally, theoretical considerations are scrutinised in the third part of the book, which makes this book essential reading for those interested in the subject of the Europeanization of private law. (PBo)
*** ANTHONY DOWNS: Une théorie économique de la démocratie. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503799 - fax: 6503794 - Email: editions@ulb.ac.be - Internet: http://www.editions-universit é-bruxelles.be). "UBlire" series. 2013, 364 pp. €10.50. ISBN 978-2-8004-1508-6.
The economist, Anthony Downs' book, An Economic Theory of Democracy, set the cat among the pigeons in 1957, given the questions it raised among political scientists. Since then, this book has continued to create waves within the ivory towers of academia, which justifies its publication in French almost half a century later. This book has received as much criticism as praise and sometimes this has been vitriolic. Its premise is to envisage democracy and elections based on the reasoning and concepts drawn from economic science, particularly “rational choices” with regard to political parties and the actors within them subsequently becoming (by caricaturing somewhat) the actors of the “political market”. This makes for indispensable reading for those seeking to understand the basis of a school of thought that is particularly anchored in the Anglo-Saxon world of political and social science.
(MT)
*** Le Revue générale. Revue générale asbl (41 ch. de Louvain, B-1320 Hamme-Mille. Tel: (32-10) 866629 - fax: 866691 - Email: la.revue.generale@live.be - Internet: http://www.revuegenerale.be ). 2013, No. 03, 96 pp. €16. Annual subscription: €99 (Belgium), €109 (European Union), €119 (outside European Union).
In the editorial at the beginning of this issue, Renaud Denuit attacks the European Council agreement of last February on the forthcoming Multiannual Financial Framework. This former official at the Commission was also a journalist and he criticises this agreement for being “bad news” because, “it fails to provide a vision for the future”, reduces the number of Erasmus beneficiaries and cuts European assistance to the most needy by 40%. In his editorial he particularly castigates the European Union for appearing to wish to, “increase the level of suffering for victims of a continental austerity policy largely defined at its level, as if the machine had gone out of control” at the very time that more than 24% of Europeans are having to face the reality of poverty and social exclusion. This machine has, undoubtedly, gone out of control, because it is being directed by political leaders who are unable to conceal “fallacious arguments” and, “a short-term conception of national interests in the richest countries and indeed, as in Germany, electoral interests to consider”. In the same issue, French banker, Michel Pebereau describes the different challenges the European banking industry has to meet, namely financial stability, economic growth and its own development in the fields of ethics and citizenship. As an expert at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, this expert describes to what extent the future of the European banking industry is tied to European construction. This is the reason why the Union needs a vision of the future that goes beyond technical progress and is based on, “extending the zones of shared sovereignty, which is now a prerequisite for ensuring the solidity of the euro zone”. (MT)
*** Diasporiques. Cultures en mouvement. Association Diasporiques et Ligue de l'enseignement (3 rue Récamier, F-75007 Paris. Email: postmaster@diasporiques.org - Internet: http://www.diasporiques.org ). 2013, No. 21, 88 pp. €6.50. Subscription: €25 (France), €30 (European Union and Switzerland), €35
(rest of world).
In this edition of Diasporiques, Jean-Marc Roirant, the Secretary General of the Ligue de l'enseignement speaks out. Over the past five years, he has supported this journal with his tenacious determination to bring down the barriers preventing cultural understanding. He is also the president of the European Civic Forum, which he has used as a platform to call on the European institutions to ensure that civil society enjoys a position and a hearing identical to that of European employers organised in Business Europe and the European Trades Union Confederation. Although he was delighted that the Commission agreed to make 2013, European Year of Citizenship, he also calls for them to change gear in an effort to ensure that European civil dialogue can escape the “Neolithic age” in which it has been based at a European level and the “Middle Ages”, which he still believes characterise the situation European countries find themselves in the field of charities and non-profit organisations. The attack becomes even more head-on in the editorial when he asks the following question of how can we seriously talk about social democracy and citizens' democracy when a large part of citizens are unemployed or have very few resources and live under the poverty line. He believes that this situation alone explains why the European institutions will not really be recognised as such by Europeans unless the Europe of citizens shifts from this utopian stance and becomes a genuinely operational reality. It should also be noted that in this issue, a contribution is made by the philosopher, Joël Roman, who demolishes the claims of the nationstate to embody the end of history. This draws on the views expressed by the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist philosopher Theodor Lessing and highlights the Greek roots of secular humanism, in addition to a reference that is both cultural and culinary in the Netherlands. (MT)
*** EMMANUEL HETRU, CLAIRE MERCIER: QCM de raisonnement abstrait des concours des institutions européennes. Une méthodologie et 180 questions avec corrigé. Orseu (3 rue Bayard, F-59000 Lille. Tel: (33-3) 20471524 - fax: 20319182 - Email: administration@orseu.com - Internet: http://www.orseu-concours.com ). 2013, 285 pp. ISBN 978-2-918796-49-7.
This book is also available in English and addresses those seeking to become European civil servants. The authors put this book together in an effort to enable candidates prepare themselves best for the abstract reasoning test. The latter is one of the six tests that have to be passed in order to participate in the second phase of the competition organised by the European personnel selection office. After indicating how these preliminary tests are organised, the authors provide a very pedagogical analysis of the best ways and techniques that should be used to correctly respond in time to the ten multiple-choice questions put to the candidates. Ultimately, they provide a number of keys with which different analogies can be established between the shapes and combinations of different shapes in order to identify the different changes that occur and master certain notions of geometry and logical sequences etc. 18 of these tests in logic and speed are provided for readers in an effort to enable them to prepare and test themselves for this examination. (MT)
*** STÉPHANE DESSELAS, NATACHA CLARAC: Les règles d'or du lobbying. Éditions du Palio (7 bis rue Fabre d'Eglantine, F-75012 Paris. Tel: (33-6) 07674600. Email: palio@editionsdupalio.fr - Internet: http://www.editionsdupalio.com ). 2012, 173 pp. €21. ISBN 978-2-35449-032-4
Stéphane Desselas is a trained lawyer and senior lecturer at Science Po Paris. He has also headed a European lobbying consultancy in Brussels for around 20 years. With his colleague Natacha Clarac, he puts forward a few of the “ golden rules” that this often much maligned profession should follow if it is to obtain the recognition it fully warrants. The authors go through the different stages of a professional lobbying campaign, ranging from the preparation stage, developing the arguments and proposals, up to proposed amendments to the action carried out by lobbyists. In their preface and forward, Anne Houtman (head of the Commission Representation in Paris) and Jean-Paul Gauzès MEP, give their backing to this methodological toolbox. (MT)