*** The next European Library, issue No. 1059, will be published on Tuesday 2 September.
*** Cahiers philosophiques. Canopé-CNDP (1 bâtiment @4, CS 80158, F-86961 Futuroscope cedex. Tel: (33-3) 44624398 - fax: 44584412 - Email: abonnement@reseau-canope.fr - Internet: http://www.cndp.fr/revuecphil/accueil.htm ). 2014, No. 137, 144 pp. Subscription €10. €32.
Will the philosophers be the saviours of European construction in the sense in which it was originally construed? This edition of the Cahiers philosophiques focuses entirely on the issue of, “Europe in question” and demonstrates that it would be idiotic not to pay attention to what some quarters are saying about this question. At the beginning of the dossier, the editor looks at the question of the European Court of Human Rights in the context of each European Union member state calling for these rights to be respected in their respective constitutions, which may lead us to fear the worst with regard to the robustness of the ideas about what will actually be done in practice. All the contributions, however, are of a very high intellectual standard and refer to the need for Europe to, “ construct an identity based on the future” and the way in which questions of what Europe means as evolved from “Husserl to Patocka” and the question of establishing whether Europe needs to create “a new species of federalism”. Each of the different contributions warrants particular attention, as well as the balance sheet drawn up by Anne Houtman, the Commission representative to France and upon which she proceeds in the framework of the interview.
Nonetheless, with regard to the scope of this column, only two articles particularly stand out and they really do deserve to be given special mention! They deal with the issue of the way in which philosophers implacably and mercilessly denounce the current situation. One of them explains what the European project means and its very essence, which have been watered down over time to the point that the European Union has betrayed itself. The other article demonstrates a number of possible ways in which the European project could be reconciled with its people again. First of all there is the accusation and then we see the real situation and the, “quagmire of a crisis for which the origins were political” explains Jean-Marc Ferry for whom the Eurozone's institutional mechanism, namely inter-governmentalism is creating this stalemate. In this context we are led to believe, “that everyone should follow the German example, which is an absurdity and founded on hypocrisy” according to the head of European philosophy at the University of Nantes and who explains that the straitjacket imposed by Berlin, “seeks to maintain a high value European currency to the point of it being overvalued, which directly serves the interests of German industry (metallurgy and the car industry, in particular) but prevents the chance of a recovery in trade in southern European countries”. The British are not spared from the philosophers' criticism either who accuses them of having encouraged, “economic and social assassination until they obtained a reduction in Union structural funds” at the 2013 spring summit. These are serious accusations particularly given the scientific research underpinning them but they do have a lot of resonance. Frédéric Allemand is responsible for coordinating European studies and is also a researcher at the Virtual Knowledge Centre on Europe and subsequently and scathingly declares that, “economic virtue is prisoner to budgetary austerity and social degradation” as decreed in Brussels where he sees a desperate interpretation of St Francis of Assisi's message and the vow of poverty imposed on those who already have nothing and the sharing of which is experienced as a sacrifice but not for the collective good. It comes as no surprise that in Greece there was no one supporting the Germans in the World Cup final against Argentina or that there has been a number of inward looking reflections nourished by the hatred of others, as witnessed in the most recent European elections …
How have we got to this point? In his short but very dense essay, Frédéric Allemand argues that the Union has taken far too many liberties with humanist thought in the aftermath of the Second World War and which originally sought to, “restore humanity's total dignity”. This senior lecturer at Science Po in Paris points out that for the founding fathers of Europe it was, “a refusal to humiliate the defeated populations and, on the contrary, promote the development of all men” that pushed us forward. They also believed that equal dignity would get rid of unequal indignity and national superiority complexes. Has anyone at the European Council, Commission or Troika managed to remember these grandiose humanistic principles that successfully underpinned the European political project? Has there been anyone in these bodies who has highlighted, “the richness of human beings” and prevented a return to the unhealthy reactions of the past to prevent this project becoming exclusively economic and materialistic? Has there been any one in Germany who has taken the time to reread what Walter Hallstein from Germany wrote and who was president of the Commission in the 1960s, “we need to avoid what separates us, the forces and the superiority complexes that pit people against each other, we need to prevent the destruction of the coexistence of difference”. We urgently need to get back to humanistic values and the pre-eminence of the human person, argues Frédéric Allemand, for whom the current stalemate in the European project confirms the arguments of Denis de Rougemont in his analysis of the treatises of Rome that, “having confidence in the federative virtue of solidarity insofar as we can develop an institutional response to providing assistance with existing resources, industrial, technical and Finance, contains the risk of subordinating the means over the end and failing to convert a Europe in its broadest sense for the masses and not simply one for the technocrats” …
Should we therefore be resigned to the fact that materialism has gobbled up the original dream? Not according to Pour Jean-Marc Ferry, for whom we need to recalibrate the project on its original goals by promoting a co-responsibility of solidarity for many, where the Community spirit becomes the rule. The absolute rule? Perhaps not: the Eurozone should become the, “central zone of robust integration” based on social and environmental goals. Tax harmonisation and synergies between national social systems, particularly on the calculation of pensions, would be able to make progress, as well as banking union based on a European banking charter that would designate banks with missions to fulfil on social responsibility. Likewise, “a European industrial charter would organise a joint responsibility by all companies with regard to the impact of redundancies” and comprehensively lead to, “companies and those possessing capital to not having any longer an almost monopolistic power of economic and financial arbitration between countries in the Eurozone, by establishing a sort of bonus for states that have the most progressive tax, social and environmental systems”. Is this simply utopian? Undoubtedly, but a utopia of this kind would certainly be preferable to the nightmares that and await us if we fail to take action.
(Michel Theys)
*** MONICA GARCIA-SALMONES, PAMELA SLOTTE (Editors): Cosmopolitanisms in Enlightenment Europe and Beyond. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). “Multiple Europes” series, No. 49. 2013, 242 pp. €42.80. ISBN 978-2-87574-065-6.
In this era of globalisation have we all really become “cosmopolitan” as the editors of this book write? The book is an extension of a conference organised at the University of Helsinki four years ago. Do all our contemporaries really feel “citizens of the world”? The progress made during many recent elections by the nationalist parties would tend to invalidate this assertion or at least qualify it because society appears to be divided on the question. In the meantime, the time appears opportune for re-examining the concept of cosmopolitanism, born during the Enlightenment of the 18th century, which is what the different experts seek to do in their contributions to this book. After Martti Koskenniemi, a professor of law's presentation of the different and sometimes even abusive uses of the cosmopolitan project in western political thought, Jan Schröder (University Eberhard-Karl of Tübingen) demonstrates that the idea of a cosmopolitan law as defended by Kant did not take root in the period of the Enlightenment. Gabriella Silvestrini (University of East Piedmont) explores the theory of war in which Jean-Jacques Rousseau unsuccessfully attempted to provide the world with a cosmopolitan standardised order. Finally, the philosopher, Demin Duan, (a graduate of the Catholic University of Leuven and who now teaches at the University of Peking) sees the liberal cosmopolitanism of Alexis de Tocqueville becoming the eulogist of the first awakening signs of imperialism. The different authors that follow highlight the way in which cosmopolitanism has been interpreted outside of its European birthplace They highlight the parochialism that took root in Latin America following Spanish occupation, as well as the economic domination in Nigeria during the British Empire and the marginalisation that affected Haiti. A number of detours are made through Napoleon and the Russian and Ottoman empires in this fascinating and complex publication, which, as explained by the editors, is both a concept and practice, a vocabulary and a project. They explain that the goal of this publication is to open minds and imagine what could become for the citizens of the world in the 21st-century.
(MT)
*** LAURE CLEMENT-WILZ ET SYLVAINE POILLOT-PERUZZETTO (Editors): Construire la citoyenneté européenne. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see address attached). « Europe des Cultures » series, No. 9. 2014, 157 pp. €37.50. ISBN 978-2-87574-133-2.
Although the word “citizen” precedes citizenship in French vocabulary, it is astonishing to learn that the term “citizenship” has been part of the European vocabulary since before the word “citizen”, “as if the citizen needed to be built by Europe and its tools rather than the reverse”. This is pointed out by the editors of this book in their preface, who are both lecturers at the Université Toulouse I Capitole. To begin with, the “economic” citizen started out by “working” or “providing a service” where s/he was taken into account in the process of European construction. The second stage should consist of guaranteeing the citizen its right to mobility, social protection and subsequently their rights as an “individual”. European citizenship is “legally proclaimed” in this book, which is developed through a variety of historic, sociological, political, geographical and psychological approaches. The authors demonstrate that citizenship has modified the European institutional paradigm based on a States-Union relationship, to include in it civil society and citizens in an ascending and descending series of relations. According to the editors, European citizenship can therefore be seen as, “the vector of passage from proclaimed 'civic morality' to the social 'ethic' sought”.
(SD)
*** INGE GOVAERE & DOMINIK HANF (Editors): Scrutinizing Internal and External Dimensions of European Law - Les dimensions internes et externes du droit européen à l'épreuve. Liber Amicorum Paul Demaret. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see address details attached). “College of Europe Studies/Cahiers du Collège d'Europe” series, No. 17. 2013, 880 pp. €69.60. ISBN 978-2-87574-085-4.
This book pays homage to Paul Demaret at the end of his second mandate as Rector of the College of Europe. After thirty-three years of a career in which he also had the role of Director of Studies, lecturer and researcher, Paul Demaret is elevated to the rank of an exceptional academic in this publication for his important contribution to the development of the College of Europe but also to the way in which he has contributed to the development of European law at the college and within European integration. The book is divided into two volumes and brings together the contributions of his friends and colleagues, academics and practitioners, with each of them analysing the current situation and future prospects internally and externally for European integration. The book begins with a preface from the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, who refers to an appeal made by Winston Churchill in a backdrop to The Hague Congress of 1948, in which he called for a Europe in which we would be proud to say, “I am European” and which would soon give birth to the College of Europe. The rest of the contributions are divided into seven different themes: teaching, human rights and citizenship, the institutional aspects of integration, the internal market and policies of accompaniment, law and competition policy, the external aspects of European integration and international trade, as well as the Union's foreign policy. This book contains a wealth of contributions that provide an excellent panoramic view of the current situation in which European law is located and what it will become in the future.
(SD)
*** DOROTA PRACZA£OWICZ, ANNA SOSNA-SCHUBERT (Editors): Deutsche und polnische Migrationserfahrungen, Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Migration - Ethnicity - Nation: Cracow studies in culture, society and politics" series. 2014, 438 pp. €69.95. ISBN 978-3-631-64788-2.
This collection of articles edited by Dorota Prasza³owicz and Anna Sosna-Schubert seeks to analyse the relationship between Germany and Poland in light of migration between the two countries or the “joint” migration of the latter to third countries, particularly the US and Canada. The articles included in this publication sometimes provide an historic insight but they also tackle contemporary issues. They both contain a well-documented bibliography that is worthy of the high-level work that has often been undertaken in this area. This collection of contributions highlights the authors' determination to avoid certain subjects that have been subject to over-examination, such as the immigration of Polish immigrants to the Ruhr and it focuses on themes that are much less frequently explored but are, nevertheless, essential, such as Polish immigration to the new German regions in the border region after 1945. The authors also attempt to take into account the complexity of the German-Polish historic factor, as characterised by the numerous ways of migration relating to economic, and political developments as well as changes to the border. They subsequently examine the difficulties that can affect the relationship between the two peoples, whilst outlining future prospects.
(GLe)