*** HANS GEEROMS, STEFAAN IDE, FRANK NAERT: The European Union and the Euro. How to Deal with a Currency Built on Dreams. Intersentia (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel. Tel: (33-3) 6801550 - fax: 6587121 - Email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.be ). 2014, 355 pp. £43, $63. ISBN 978-1-78068-183-2.
Clearly conceived ideas can be understood clearly, according to Boileau. The authors of this succinct publication confirm this in no uncertain terms. They provide a remarkably clear insight into the different facets of the single currency, including the crisis now affecting this currency and the different possible outcomes for the Eurozone in the near future. The three authors also constantly seek to provide an objective view of the facts. All three are lecturers: Professor Frank Naert teaches the economic aspects of European integration at the University of Ghent; Professor Hans Geeroms teaches at the College of Europe at the Catholic University of Leuven, where Stefaan Ide is also a senior lecturer. The latter two also work the research department at the National Bank of Belgium and are eager to provide a clinical diagnosis of the situation but do they provide any empathy for the patient at all? No, although they narrate the history and the vicissitudes of the currency built on dreams, as explained in the book's subtitle and they have an attachment to the euro that goes beyond their misgivings, the scientific task incumbent on them effectively translates their conviction that, “what cannot be explained clearly, cannot be true or efficient”.
In the first chapter, the three authors essentially recall the origins of European integration, which enables them to immediately describe how Europe is in fact a slow process punctuated by crises that have forged a complicated institutional framework and whose operational functioning becomes evident even before the budgetary instruments the European Union has at its disposition, are made known. The economic components of Economic and Monetary Union are subsequently analysed. This includes competition policy and, above all, the theoretical aspects of the Common Market. The success of the latter has had an effect on the success of monetary union and has also, to a greater or lesser extent, bestowed upon it the status for an optimal monetary zone. The next part of the book focuses on the theoretical basis of monetary union and the authors explain that the, “Eurozone has been weakened by the absence of a common mechanism for risk sharing in the form of financial transfers” and the means to stabilise capital flows. The other chapters focus on the roots of the crisis that hit the weakest links in the Eurozone and the authors pay particular attention to the way in which the European Central Bank responded to prevent the crisis getting worse. In the fourth chapter of the book, what is going to happen in the long term is explored in light of the decisions that have been taken in an emergency situation. These include the budgetary and banking unions and new financial sector regulation, as well as prospects for growth and competitiveness. The three authors believe that it is important to point out that Economic and Monetary Union has never been an end in itself but rather, “an instrument to improve the well-being and quality of European citizens' lives”.
The concluding chapter is also extremely interesting because Hans Geeroms, Stefaan Ide and Frank Naert examine the different prices exit strategies put forward by European decision-makers and the mechanisms to protect the euro zone from any collapse. They therefore touch on the responsibility of the individual countries that have incurred deficits, as well as the states that have remained in surplus. They point out that some countries have been more willing to impose sanctions than others and that the political weight exerted by Germany, where it refers to the term debt as a failing, is not for nothing. The possibilities for restructuring Greek debt and Greece leaving the euro zone are also assessed. The authors explore the question of whether it is possible to leave the euro zone in an orderly way. They also evaluate the question of how the division of Czechoslovakia and the break-up of the Soviet Union provided an opportunity for countries to create a new currency for themselves. Nonetheless, this adventure has proved risky, particularly since it is the citizens themselves who have been its first victims. Ultimately, in order to prevent any further crisis occurring in the Eurozone, the authors advocate the need to introduce improved criteria for an optimal monetary zone and genuinely apply stricter rules on debt. They also envisage the possibility of risk sharing by way of the Eurozone budget and by launching Eurobonds. Nonetheless, will certain political leaders hold Boileau in enough esteem, to the point of agreeing with this analysis? Michel Theys
*** ROBERT O'DONOGHUE, JORGE PADILLA: The law and economics of Article 102 TFEU. Hart Publishing (16C Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 - fax: 51510710 - Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk - Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). 2013, 1008 pp. £145. ISBN 9781849461399.
This reference book seeks to comprehensively analyse the legal and economic principles involved in the application of Article 102 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union with regard to companies occupying a dominant position. The customary monopolistic practices of predatory or excessive pricing, refused sales, tied and group sales, promotional sales and illegal discrimination are analysed in detail in light of the economic principles of case law, decision-making practices and legal and economic doctrine. The book also covers major constitutional factors in Article 102 of the Treaty, such as the definition of market dominance, the effects on trade and appropriate remedies. This book is innovative because a lawyer and an economist jointly wrote it. The authors therefore provide an integrated approach to the legal and economic principles framing competition policy in the area of corporate dominant position. It was first published in 2006 and the second edition of this book takes into account recent developments in this field and also benefits from two new chapters: one focuses on the history, development and reform of Article 102 and the other on the conduct and infringements to standards. Although this book is mainly for legal practitioners, it could also prove essential reading for those interested in the application of competition law and the monopolistic behaviour of certain companies. (SD)
*** ERIC WALRAVENS: Dumping fiscal. Enquête sur un chantage qui ruine nos Etats. Les petits matins (31 rue Faidherbe, F-75011 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43487727 - Internet: http://www.lespetitsmatins.fr ). 2014, 206 pp. €15. ISBN 978-2-36383-140-8.
This book provides another solidly backed up indictment. After a far-reaching investigation, Belgian journalist, Eric Walravens, provides a damning exposé of how certain people and companies exploit the globalised phenomenon of fiscal competition. Although the leading signatories of the Lisbon Treaty claimed that they wanted to, “deepen solidarity between the different peoples”, even European Union countries, the heart of the investigator's target, cheerfully succumb to the very discreet and above all profitable charms of tax competition. Multinational companies championed the blackmail that has contributed to de-legitimising taxes in the eyes of poor normal citizens but very well qualified workers and those possessing the capital (without even mentioning the creative sector and the cinema industry, in particular) are not the only ones to benefit from the tantalising tax gestures addressed to them. Which countries make these tantalising offers: Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland? Obviously, but these are not the only ones because all European countries, as well as Switzerland, of course, are covered in this book and succumb to varying degrees to this blackmail practised upon them, which is construed by the super wealthy. The author writes in a lively journalistic style and reveals the processes that led the EU28 to get rid of all the different barriers to the free movement of capital between them and on this basis, create an environment that is propitious to their mutual competition in the tax field, where the, “ taboo of tax harmonisation” remains complete. “How can legitimate taxation be implemented if those who are the most mobile threaten not to contribute to it? Why pay your taxes if you are able to evade them?” These are the questions that require answers from our respective national leaders and the sooner the better! (MT)
*** HELEN DOMSCHAT: Die deutsche Vorschrift zur Verhinderung von Abkommen- und Richtlinienmissbrauch und ihre Vereinbarkeit mit Unionsrecht. 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 ). "Trierer Studien zum Internationalen Steuerrecht" series. 2013, 173 pp. €44.95. ISBN 978-3-631-61680-2.
After providing an account of the German legal tax provisions that seek to tackle infringements to the fiscal treaties and abuse of the directives, Helen Domschat provides an analysis in this PhD thesis of Article 50d, paragraph 3 of the 2007 German tax law and the repercussions resulting from this tightening up of this provision. The relationship between paragraph 3 and the other legal provisions are also examined, particularly with regard to Article 42 of the German tax code and the compatibility of this paragraph with Union law. This study illustrates the incompatible nature of the 2007 reform with the Union's primary and secondary laws. (GLe)
*** STELIOS PERRAKIS: Le droit européen des droits de l'homme. Le Conseil de l'Europe - L'Union européenne - L'OSCE: une synthèse de notes de conférences à l'Université d'Athènes. Editions I Sideris (116 Solonos Str., GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3833434 - fax: 3832294 - Email: contact@isideris.gr - Internet: http://www.isideris.gr ). 2013, 299 pp. €23.43. ISBN 978-960-08-0610-6.
In this book, Stelios Perrakis, a university lecturer in International and European Institutions at the Pantheon University of Athens and head of the European Research and Training Centre in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action, provides an insight into the process involving intergovernmental and integration cooperation in Europe, which seeks to combine the promotion and protection of human and minority rights. To this end, he explores the main European organisations and institutions working on the ground in this area, namely the Council of Europe, the European Union and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Their combined action has given rise to the concept of European human rights law. The author looks at the issues of the law, policies and different mechanisms, processes and institutions. He also analyses the institutional documents linking theory and practice in the area of human and minority rights. (AKa)
*** FILIP DORSSEMONT, KLAUS LÖRCHER, ISABELLE SCHÖMANN (Editors): The European Convention on Human Rights and employment relations. Hart Publishing (see address details attached). 2013, 442 pp. £60. ISBN 978-3-631-61680-2.
The accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights now enables workers and trade unions to access another kind of procedure that allows them to contest European law with regard to the Convention. In purely theoretical terms, this means that instead of a single recognition of fundamental rights as general principles in Union law, European law now has to be passed by the European Convention on Human Rights as the “gold standard” for the protection of fundamental (social) rights. In a climate of, “seemingly permanent crisis” the reduction in the level of social protection could be seen as being contrary to the Convention and this initiative could be seen as being highly significant. Based on an analysis of the relationship between the case law established in Strasbourg and the European Court of Justice, the different contributions contained in this publication aim to analyse the role of the Convention in view of the protection of workers' rights and civil and political rights in work relations. The different contributions also focus on the role of other social protection instruments such as the Council of Europe, the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Convention. This is the third volume in the trilogy of books published as part of a research project headed by the Transnational Trade Union Rights Experts' Network. The book provides the main outlines of the development of fundamental rights in the Union's legal system, as well as their increasing importance in the creation of a more socially oriented Europe. A third tome looks at the problems created by the economic crisis and is expected out soon. (SD)
*** LOUIS HENRI SEUKWA (Editor): Integration of refugees into the European education and labour market. Requirements for a Target Group Oriented Approach. Peter Lang (see address details attached). 2013,302 pp. €47.95. ISBN 978-3-631-64152-1.
In the immigration and asylum field, European and national policies are peppered with contradictions. Although these policies are based on the defence and security of countries' economic interests, they are also characterised by a wish to apply humanitarian ideals, such as human rights, democratic principles and the situation affecting refugees. In the majority of cases, however, these policies tend to favour national interests. By recognising asylum seekers and political refugees as subjects of integration and therefore subjects of education and employment too, Directive 2003/9/EC on minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers in member states, has enabled the Union to send out a strong message. It is in this context that asylum seekers and political refugees from 2002-2007 were, for the first time, explicitly taken into account in the European employment programme. The EQUAL initiative sought to provide support for innovative transnational projects to tackle discrimination and exclusion on the jobs market. Despite its success, the programme was not resumed after 2007. In this book, a number of different authors analyse the results obtained by EQUAL with regard to the aims of the directive. Based on practical cases drawn from four different European cities, they examine questions of access to education, vocational training and the labour market by asylum seekers and political refugees. The authors subsequently formulate a series of recommendations for better integrating them into the European education and employment market. (SD)