*** BENJAMIN FREYEN, EWA KRZAKLEWSKA (editors): The ERASMUS Phenomenon. Symbol of a new European Generation? Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). “Education Beyond borders”, No. 1. 2013, 245 pp. €41.95. ISBN 978-3-631-6 719-8.
In addition to having acquired two and a half decades of experience, Erasmus has also assumed an “impressive scale” in its coverage but is it really, “the symbol of the new European generation?” This question is included in the subtitle of the book edited by Benjamin Freyen and Ewa Krzaklewska and expresses doubt about the possibility of obtaining optimum implementation of this student exchange programme between member states. A number of other contributions also provide hands-on testimonies (in English and German) about the emergence of a supranational European consciousness, with the proviso that this is not reserved for the “elite”. Students are encouraged to live abroad for a period of between 3 and 12 months, studying in another higher education establishment in a different language public even though English tends to be the lingua franca of the young European intellectuals in question. The spirit and practice of this programme, popularised by the film, “L'Auberge espagnole”, has been very much taken to heart by the students benefiting from this experience. The will to establish closer ties between different European peoples appears to have found a concrete expression in this project.
The different authors of the book explain that the results of the Erasmus programme are very telling. “Only” 3244 students from 11 countries were initially part of the project in 1987. This figure now stands at 230,000, who seek to obtain this experience every year. In total, almost 3,000,000 students from more than 4000 higher education colleges have benefited from it. It has become the, “most well-known exchange programme and the biggest in the world… over the past 25 years, Erasmus has been transformed into one of the most visible and popular initiatives” of the European Union and provides the basis for creating a “Europe of citizens”. The differing contributions in the book also explain that the programme's impact fact on university policies in Europe as a whole is incontestable. There is another side, however, to the scoreboard, which is characterised by the low level of resources allocated to it (€450 million). This means, in effect, that not everyone who wants to live in another country will get a sufficient grant. Only 4% of European students have taken up this chance, whilst the others have often had to give up on the idea of living abroad because their financial situation would not subsidise all their requirements whilst living in a foreign country. The European Commission has therefore failed to attain its original goals due to the lack of resources and has been unable to ensure full implementation of this programme, which was originally devised as a programme for “everybody”. Even worse, there is a fear that even these resources, already deemed insufficient, will not be able to be maintained. During the whole of last year, the media reported on the probability of the budget being reduced, due to the crisis. This would only be one of the challenges facing Erasmus and which is in danger of excluding any students from, “socially deprived backgrounds”. At a qualitative level, there will also be questions regarding the recognition of academic knowledge acquired and the quality and level of exchange with local students.
Opportunities and challenges involved in developing an “Erasmus generation” are analysed throughout the different contributions, which particularly focus on the emergence of a specific “identity”, despite the different “culture shocks” that sometimes occur. There is also the fundamental question of whether an Erasmus a generation, “can bring change in Europe”. On a positive note, there are three ways forward, argue the book's authors. Firstly, Erasmus should be allowed to achieve its full potential and attain its goals contained in the original programme of providing for everyone, not only a spoilt elite; secondly, it should innovate and propose new teaching structures; set up of dynamic networks and finally, it should be opened up more to society as a whole and obviously provide sufficient resources …
Fathi B'Chir
*** PROKOPIS PAVLOPOULOS: Le droit public dans la constellation de la crise économique. Le "Labyrinthe" économique, le "Minotaure" néolibéral et l'institutionnel "Thésée". Éditions Livanis (98 Solonos, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3661200 - fax: 3617791- Email: webmaster@livanis.gr - Internet: http://www.livanis.gr ). 2013, 477pp. €17. ISBN 978-960-14-2720-1.
This professor of constitutional law at the University of Athens has been a minister in government of the centre-right on a number of occasions. In his new book, Prokopis Pavlopoulos explains in a very vivid way that the legal system is crumbling in the “Labyrinths” of the extremely deep economic crisis in Greece. In the depths of this crisis, he identifies the neoliberal “Minotaur” of “deregulation”. The Greek legal system is not immune to this harmful experience, which is having a direct impact on the “emblematic” human rights in the country, as well as on representative democracy as a whole. According to the author, the institutional framework of “Theseus” is now needed to defend what is left of legal protection, rights of ownership and social rights in general. This can be interpreted as the social state, even though the first signs of social disintegration are appearing to be even more menacing than before.
(AKa)
*** KOSTAS CHRISSOGONOS: La circonvention de la constitution à l'époque des mémorandums. Éditions Livanis (see address attached). 2013, 316 pp. €14. ISBN 978-960-14-2679-2.
This book by Kostas Chrysogonos, a lecturer at the University of Salonika, is aimed at legal specialists, as well as ordinary Greek and European citizens worried about the future in this era of memorandums. It is the condensed expression of all the author's fears about threats to the Constitution. At the same time, the author also has a number of fears about the real substance of civil rights being eradicated, with the political world appears incapable of protecting them. The only thing left appears to be individual rights but perhaps, according to author, it is only a question of time for these too… the level of debt is not sustainable in the long term and the question is now one of whether, after its collapse, a profound and substantial democratisation of the Greek state will take place or, on the contrary, there will be a regression to more open forms of authoritarianism.
(AKa)
*** ANNA FRANGOUDAKI: Le nationalisme et l'ascension de l'extrême droite. Editions Alexandria (133 Solonos Str., GR-10677 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3806305 - fax: 3838173 - Email: alexpubl@alexandria-publ.gr - Internet: http://www.alexandria-publ.gr ). 2013, 278 pp. €16. ISBN 978-960-221-581-4.
Following the fall of the dictatorship of the colonels, the extreme right in Greece remained a largely marginal, insignificant force, without any political influence. In this book, the sociologist and lecturer at the University of Athens, Anna Frangoudaki, asks why Greek society is suddenly turning in on itself. Despite the fact that over the past three decades everything had been done to ensure that Greece became a modern European democracy, how and why have extreme right groups become part of the Parliamentary representative system since 2007? Why does the Greek parliament accommodate itself to the most openly pro-Nazi far right in the European Union? The analysis of the causes illustrates a development in which Greek society has gradually fallen into a trap set by an outmoded and xenophobic kind of nationalism that through its isolation harms national interests. The author concludes by urging Greek citizens to recognise this trap and the consequences that result from it because this recognition is indispensable if they are going to overcome the major political crisis affecting the country and to help it efficiently overcome the economic crisis.
(AKa)
*** TASSOS YANNITSIS: La Grece dans la crise. Éditions Polis (33 Eolou Str., GR-10551 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3643382 - fax: 3636501 - Email: info@polis-ed.gr - Internet: http://www.polis-ed.gr ). 2013, 275 pp. €16. ISBN 978-960-435-407-8.
The author of this book is a lecturer at the University of Athens and a former Socialist minister. He believes that Greek society is now looking for an alternative. This has to be democratic and lead to the reconquering of the public arena and collective interest and that it also mobilises citizens' support, in an effort to establish a national government that is worthy of the name. According to Tassos Yannitsis, Greece has turned into a small southern provincial country in the Balkans, as a result of the policies carried out over the past 30 years. He considers that the Greek political community has to go beyond the suffocating debate that pits pro-memorandum and anti-memorandum supporters against each other if they are going to find a political solution to the crisis and a development model that is appropriate to Greece's specific situation and which is acceptable and understood by the country's citizenship. In conclusion, the author explains that if the political fears and incestuous relations with powerful private interests prevent this vital leap forward, the social costs will continue to deepen until they become unbearable.
(AKa)
*** PHILIPPE DELIVET: Les politiques de l'Union européenne. La Documentation Française (Direction de l'information légale et administrative, 29 quai Voltaire, F-75344 Paris cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 40157010 - Internet: http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr ). "Réflexe Europe / Institutions & Politiques" series. 2013, 294 pp €16. ISBN 978-2-11-009269-4.
This book is part of a series whose very worthy goal is to provide a didactic account of the elements required for obtaining an effective understanding of the European Union's institutions and policies. This mission is accomplished perfectly in this book, which provides a clear inventory of the different European policies. Philippe Delivet is an adviser to the directorate responsible for legislation and control at the French Senate, where he mainly works for the European Affairs Commission service. He provides an account of the policies that have marked the history of European construction, together with the pitfalls that have sometimes accompanied it. He then dissects the complex decision-making processes that allow these and the policies to be devised and implemented, together with their funding, which is often the most politically sensitive question that needs to be tackled. He then goes on to providing an exhaustive presentation of the different, “policies for economic and monetary integration” (competition, Economic and Monetary Union, industrial policy, trade policy and common policies), as well as implementation of the single market and sectoral policies, such as green Europe, transport and networks, economic, social and regional cohesion, research and energy. The third part of the book focuses on, “policies for deepening the European project”, namely those that aim to bring Europe closer to its citizens, such as the policy for building a Europe of freedom, security and justice, the environment and the fight against climate change, as well as social, cultural and education policies. The last part of the book looks at the Union's external action and enlargement policies. In his conclusions, the author does not try and hide the fact that the debt crisis has cruelly unveiled a blatant lack of economic governance in the Union. He believes that the Union will only be able to tackle the challenges resulting from the situation by setting up a mode of governance that is both efficient and democratic and if this is not forthcoming, the citizens in Europe will not give this Union their adherence or trust, which is obvious!
(MT)
*** NIELS FENGER, MORTEN BROBERG: Le renvoi préjudiciel à la Cour de justice de l'Union européenne. Éditions Larcier (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480713 - fax: 5480714 - Email: commande@larciergroup.com - Internet: http://www.larciergroup.com ). 2013, 666 pp. €125. ISBN 978-2-8044-5537-8.
The second Danish judge to be appointed at the European Court of Justice, which he presided over a six-year period as from 1988, passed away in 2005. This impressive book is dedicated to this Judge, Ole Due, and was written by two university from the University of Copenhagen who knew him. This book involves an exhaustive study of the referral for a preliminary ruling that the national courts are allowed to submit to the Court in Luxembourg. The subject was initially tackled in a book published in English in 2010 but this version is no simple translation, for two reasons. Firstly, the editing of the first book was completed before the Lisbon Treaty entered into force and the French version takes into account the different innovations from the treaty, as well as new developments introduced by the new procedure regulation that entered into force at the Court in November 2012. Importantly, this book was translated by Karim Kouri, who, as a legal registrar at the European Court of Justice, knew, according to the book's authors, how to, “formulate a number of commentaries and suggestions that really helped to improve the final text”. This is why, this time, the name of the translator is included on the cover of the book together with that of Judge Wathelet, who wrote the preface. Referral procedure initiated by a national court as a means to obtain the interpretation of a legal act of the European Union, forms part of the expression of the interaction and distribution of tasks between national courts and the European Court of Justice. This interaction in the resolution of national legal affairs involves Union law, which is at the core of this book. Its authors provide a meticulous examination of the different aspects of this procedure over 13 different chapters that are obviously mainly addressed to legal specialists. In the introductory chapter alone, Niels Fenger and Morten Broberg, look at the different developments that have affected this procedure, as well of the different kinds of referrals that exist in the Union's legal system. These include those that prevail in the European Economic Area, as well as possible support that can be provided by the Commission and Ombudsman. The introduction also contains a discussion about the possible changes that are likely to arise in the future. In the following 12 chapters, all the different aspects of the procedure are examined meticulously and a chronological table and index also provide further clarification. Melchior Wathelet explains that all this helps the reader, “specialist or those lacking experience, to easily find answers to conceptual or procedural questions that arise”. He subsequently explains that he does not always agree with the ideas and critical viewpoints expressed by the authors of this book.
(MT)