*** ROGER GODINO, FABIEN VERDIER: Vers la Fédération européenne. L'Europe de la dernière chance. Notre Europe / Institut Jacques Delors (19 rue de Milan, F-75009 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 44589797 - Email: info@notre-europe.eu - Internet: http://www.notre-europe.eu ). "Policy Paper" series, No. 105. 2014, 20 pp.
This most recent Policy Paper published three weeks ago by the reflection group founded by Jacques Delors has already led to a lot of ink to be spilt and will continue to do so, which has not always necessarily been very flattering with regard to the authors of the paper. Nonetheless, at first glance, how can we reproach the authors of this report when it was they who developed the comprehensive and extremely sensible observation that the profound crisis in which the European Union and even more so, the Eurozone, find themselves embroiled. This crisis will only be overcome at a price, namely, by way of strong political action and decisive progress towards developing a federal solution. As a senior administrator in the European League for Economic Co-operation, Roger Godino is well-placed to point out that, “all currencies require stronger and transparent leadership if they are to be sustainable”, which is why he and Fabien Verdier, the president of the Club Convictions, propose that they create a “Federation of Nation States” along the same lines as the concept invented by former President Delors.
In practice, the federal core envisaged would have its priority projects focusing on two obvious objectives: relaunching growth because it is obvious that the current, “austerity policy… that seeks at any price to reduce public spending, sometimes goes beyond what is reasonable” develops both the conditions for recession and tax harmonisation. In response to the austerity that has been construed almost as a principle, the authors propose replacing it with a “rather progressive policy” aimed at relaunching growth through investment, which will obviously involve using Eurobonds issued by the European Investment Bank. Projects that should receive the support and investment sectors in the future should focus on research and higher education, as well as major European infrastructure initiatives in areas such as energy and transport, which would be selected by the “European Investment Agency” on the basis of their guaranteed profitability. This is all perfectly reasonable. How can we find fault with Godino and Verdier when they advocate a swift transition to tax harmonisation in federated countries that agree, first and foremost, on a common accepted definition for certain taxes, before proceeding to a harmonisation of the rates based on the fluctuating margins that prevail for national currencies that are evolving towards the Ecu. This is indeed, judging by the evidence, an interesting way in which one could possibly go.
Doubts, however, arise when we become aware that Luxembourg could not become part of the Federation because it has earned its status of economic paradise exactly in the fiscal area. It is not unreasonable on the behalf of the authors to argue that the Union of 28 will not be able to effectively work in these two areas due to the obstruction that the United Kingdom would obviously attempt to create. They therefore propose that the doors of this new club would only be open to founding countries and that Luxembourg would be replaced by Spain. A place could also be offered Poland once it has adopted the euro. These countries would therefore account for two thirds of European GDP and would be sufficiently economically homogenous to tackle many of the major challenges created by globalisation. This is all quite clear but have the authors taken into account the fact that economic characteristics do not account for very much when faced with the desire or the absence of a desire to share some more of the countries' respective sovereignty? Are they aware that the Netherlands is now currently becoming more inward looking in a similar way to the United Kingdom with regard to how it perceives Europe? This simple observation is already, in itself, replete with many problems but there are far more difficulties than this …
Although Roger Godino and Fabien Verdier criticise President Hollande for having wanted to set up (with his proposal to create economic governance for the Eurozone,) “a body for making more collective decisions but without committing the country to any kind of democratic control” it would also create several more new bodies at an institutional level than they had advocated. Some commentators would certainly point out that they are not incorrect to emphasise the fact that, “ heads of state are inventing a new Europe by deciding everything in the European Council” and that this is, “working in total democratic opacity, which is undermining the credibility of all the other institutions”. Is this, however, sufficient reason for inventing a “new machine”? Is this a reason for suggesting that a Chamber and a Senate in the Federation of Nation States would both stem from… the national parliaments themselves? This would constitute one of the most disastrous regressions in the history of European construction and would lead to European citizens finding themselves deprived of a voice in the project they had begun to win in 1979! Is it really the best way in which preparation should be done for the European elections next May? This policy paper undoubtedly confirms the fact that some people in France are still determined to build Europe on the basis of their own republic and without much consideration for their citizens. In their eyes, it is only the states and their respective executives that really count. Michel Theys
*** ANDREAS PANTAZOPOULOS: Le national-populisme de gauche 2008-2013. De la « rébellion » de Décembre, des « Indignés » et de l'élection de 2012 jusqu'à la nouvelle question chypriote. Éditions Epikentro (9 rue Kamvounion, GR-54621 Salonika. Tel: (30-231) 0256146 - fax: 0256148 - Email: books@epikentro.gr). 2013, 264 pp. €15. ISBN 978-960-458-402-4.
Since 2008 and the youth “rebellion” in December that year, we now see emerging a new Cypriot question and socio-political developments in Greece, with the growth of national populist movements on both the left and right. Does this phenomenon really exist? According to Andreas Pantazopoulos, a professor of political science at the University of Salonika, a regular contributor to the “I Avgi” newspaper, it does indeed exist and which he has and witnessed in the mass mobilisation of the “Indignant” Movement and the taking over of city squares. He has interpreted the calls for creating a “new national liberation movement” as part of the conspiracy theories and increasing anti-German sentiment. The political force that obtained a significant number of votes during the May and June elections in 2012 could suggest that pro-European prospects in Greece are now seriously under threat. Some of those who refused to acknowledge this situation began to become aware of it when they witnessed the enthusiastic welcome in Italy for the Beppe Grillo phenomenon and, especially, when unprecedented political co-operation appeared among national populists from the two extremes in the context of the “new Cypriot question”. The author therefore explains that a substantial part of the so-called “active left wing” has come face-to-face with the caricature of the “nation”, the obscure figure from the realms of “National Socialism” and the use of populism as an ideology. The different chapters in this book seek to analyse these worrying developments and demonstrate why national populism is not the solution to the major problems involving Greek society's increasing lack of confidence in the political establishment. (AKa)
*** NICOLA KRISTIN KARCHER, ANDERS G. KJOSTVEDT (Editors): Movements and Ideas of the Extreme Right in Europe. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P.O. Box 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Zivilisationen & Geschichte" series, No. 21. 2012, 252 pp. €46.95. ISBN 978-3-631-60136-5.
This book benefited from support from the Freedom of Expression Foundation in Oslo. It is a continuation of a conference at the Humboldt University in Berlin in December 2009, which brought together specialists from the academic world: historians, political scientists and philosophers, for the most part. Together, they scrutinised the situation in Europe before and after the Second World War, with all the different continuities and discontinuities involving the extreme right. Subsequently, scientific analysis is made of the political movements and extremist pressure groups that opposed the liberal democratic order and fascist beliefs in the countries examined such as Germany, which saw the birth of the Nazis, as well as Oswald Mosley in the United Kingdom and Norway. A number of other relationships between generic fascism and the far right are examined in the contributions that follow, which also focus on the more recent past, particularly the contemporary far right in Germany and the way in which it sought to exploit the suffering of German civilians following the defeat of the Third Reich. (PBo)
*** TOBIAS CHILLA: Punkt, Linie, Fläche - territorialisierte Europäisierung. Peter Lang (see address details attached). "Luxemburg-Studien/Etudes luxembourgeoises" series. 2013, 223 pp. €49.95. ISBN 978-3-631-62953-6.
The effects of European construction on this area have been manifold and unexpected. In this book, which is the extension of his thesis, Tobias Chilla conceptualises these effects and presents three case studies based upon the logic of points/lines/area. In the context of points, he demonstrates how the search for a “capital of the European Union” and the setting up of their corresponding institutions designated Brussels, to a lesser extent, as a city with the same status of Luxembourg and Strasbourg, although no real European capital was really designated until much later. On the question relating to the concept of lines, the author highlights the identification of the “greater region” around Luxembourg, which witnessed a change of scale in cross-border co-operation. Finally, the issue of area also examines the effects of the fauna, flora and habitats directive in the European area. The general reasoning underpinning this doctoral thesis creates a synthesis of geographic, legal and political science. Whilst putting forward his arguments, the author also analyses the reciprocal influences between politics/policies and area and uses them to develop many conceptual and detailed tools. He provides a consistent and detailed analysis of the different interaction between the variety of political levels and actors responsible for territorial policy. (GLe)
*** CHRISTIAN BANSE: Nationale Grenzerfahrungen und grenzüberschreitende Prozesse. Eine soziologische Untersuchung an ausgewählten Grenzregionen. Peter Lang (see address attached). Collection "Görlitzer Beiträge zu regionalen Transformationsprozessen". 2013, 300 pp. €54.95. ISBN 978-3-631-64997-8.
In this thesis, Christian Banse looks at the effects of European construction and the different European cross-border co-operation programmes in the Union's internal cross-border regions. One key question he seeks to answer looks involves whether these different policies led to the creation of cross-border undertakings that were capable of transcending nations as identity references. He adopts a classic sociological approach and begins his thesis with an insight into the concept of borders and the relationship between national borders and their social counterparts. To achieve this aim, he makes use of a number of analytical tools from different disciplinary areas: sociology, history, geography, economy and law. He then undertakes an empirical study of three internal Union orders, which constitutes the main body of his thesis: the Franco German border at Strasbourg-Kehl, the German Danish border at Flensburg and the Polish German border at Frankfurt on the Oder/S³ubice. The border region of Strasbourg-Kehl study demonstrates exemplary analysis and a certain intellectual courage because as a whole, the author succeeds in providing a thorough examination of particularly sensitive historic and identity-related subjects. The part of the book that deals with the German Danish border region contains many qualities but ignores a number of important questions. The author appears somewhat embarrassed by his analysis and the supposition that Denmark is a “Eurosceptic” country but which in fact is more of an assumption that it is borne out in facts. This “Eurosceptic” analytical prism prevents Christian Banse considering the whole question and the question of Denmark's departure from the Schengen area in 2011. The author minimises this event, as well as the symbolic importance and practical implications. With regard to the study of the German Polish border region at Frankfurt/S³ubice, the analysis is both interesting and far-reaching but provides a more German point of view on the question, which is probably because the author does not know the Polish language. There is also the question of whether he has attempted to compensate for this handicap with a more developed field study that is, overall, successful but which sometimes assumes anecdotal dimensions. With regard to the possible “dissolution” of these borders, Christian Banse successfully distinguishes between the economic component of this “solution” (of which the entire population benefits from the fact of the flourishing trade and commerce in these areas) and the genuine rapprochement between the two areas, which mainly benefits the respective élites for obvious reasons (such as the ability to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers). This balance sheet is drawn from a number of lessons provided in this thesis and is the result of methodical deductions and consistently objective research. Despite some of its limitations, this far-reaching and detailed undertaking is undoubtedly of certain interest. (GLe)
*** ANDERS BLOMQVIST, CONSTANTIN IORDACHI, BALAZS TRENCSENYI (Editors): Hungary and Romania Beyond National Narratives. Comparisons and Entanglements. Peter Lang (see address attached). “Nationalisms across the Globe”, No. 10. 2013, 847 pp. €85.60. ISBN 978-3-0343-0935-6.
This book brings together twenty specialists who explore the bilateral relations between Hungary and Romania, as well as the shared history between the two peoples and the images of hostility promoted by the respective nationalist camps. Tackling the historical questions of these two countries in a single context rather than in isolation helps to develop a more comprehensive illustration of the history of Central Europe. By going beyond nationalist simplifications and exploring common theoretical and methodological areas, the authors put the paradigm of transnational history to the test in this study of this European region. The work undertaken focuses on multiple perspectives in the interconnected histories of these two countries in the Union and subsequently provides a very useful example in the comparative historical approach. (AKa)