*** ALEXANDRE DUPEYRIX, GERARD RAULET (Editors): European Constitutionalism. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. 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 ). "Euroclio" series, No. 83. 2014, 166 pp. €46. ISBN 978-2-87574-192-9
At first, this book may appear irritating. In their introduction, the two editors do not provide assurances that the "single political project" embodied by the European Union has ever been clarified and also appear to have forgotten that the declaration in which Robert Schuman invited Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries to join France in creating the European Community of Coal and Steel laid down the first concrete foundations of a European federation essential to maintaining peace! In reality, the goal was perfectly clear in the minds of the founding fathers of Europe and the truth compels us to say that it is the national political leaders that have done everything they could to avoid this goal and water it down as much they can in the name of national sovereignty. If, as asserted by Professors Dupeyrix and Raulet (Université Paris-Sorbonne), "European integration is a process the end of which is not defined in advance", it was in fact Charles de Gaulle and his many successes at the Elysée, as well as those who occupied 10 Downing Street after Edward Heath and those who are now lending them an ear in many other European capitals who we owe it to. So there we have it, these are only ones guilty of a lack of determination and who in these times of existential crisis are disorientating the different peoples of Europe and reviving selfishness to the extent that it is impacting on the European Union and the Eurozone and threatening to sink it. Although, as pointed out by the editors of this book, Jean Monnet had written in his memoirs that he, "never doubted that this process would lead us one day to the United States of Europe" but refused to imagine (…) "the political framework", it is because he knew that this would ultimately be the result from the resistance, once the imperatives of the situation permitted, because the shape of it was at the time difficult to predict.
With the crisis now shaking the Eurozone and the whole of the European Union, have we not in fact arrived at an appropriate time to tackle head-on the "paradoxes or antinomies" hindering and altering the goals of the European project? Some would rightfully argue that the winds now blowing are barely in its favour. Nonetheless, as emphasised by Dupeyrix and Raulet, we cannot but hope that the crisis we are experiencing is one of these "realities" out of which institutional innovation and political decisions will arise. It is in this perspective that this book, an extension of a social philosophy seminar organised at the Inter-University centre of Dubrovnik in April 2013, becomes such a precious tool in providing such knowledgeable clarification with regard to the different dimensions of the current constitutional process in the Union and the many different difficulties that it has so far encountered.
In the first part of the book, the four contributions focus on the essence and legal structure of the Union. It tackles the unique constitutional process peculiar to the EU28 that has resulted from the historical specificities making it up, as well as the constitutional universalism. These reasons explain the attractive concept of European constitutional patriotism and the role played by human rights. Violeta Besirevic's premise is that a constitution can exist without a state to defend the idea that the Union is in fact but one and an, "un-codified, evolutive and anti-revolutionary" entity. This lecturer in law at the University of Belgrade, as explained by the editors, puts forward the case that the, "political Messianism in EU integration has been predominantly directed at making democracy the only legitimate form of governance in the EU public order, without a parallel in transnational or international law". This point of view is therefore incontestably an interesting one in these times of democratic troubles in Greece and beyond… The second part of the book sees the four authors tackle the questions of European constitutionalism from a political and philosophical point of view, with perfectly appropriate references in this perspective to Habermas and Kant. Alexandre Dupeyrix proposes the replacement of the cosmopolitanism of the latter with the concept of "transnational democracy". A final contribution focuses on the adoption of the declaration of December 1973 on the European identity, which, according to one young historian active at the University of Strasbourg, undeniably characterises the birth of an unprecedented political entity in the international arena.
Michel Theys
*** SUSANA DEL RÍO VILLAR: Europe: Project and Process. Citizens, Democracy, Participation. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (See address attached). "Cuadernos de Yuste" series, No. 9. 2014, 173 pp. €48.20. ISBN 978-2-87574-190-5.
This book is an act of faith and the arguments behind it are well supported. In it, Susana del Río Villar expresses her deep conviction that since the very outset, European construction has been both a project and a process. She also believes that at this stage, it is also an adventure of which it is imperative that citizens and European society take ownership. Throughout this book, this political scientist develops ideas about supranational European democracy and makes a heartfelt call for a participative democracy to be developed, together with representative democracy. She believes that to do this, ties need to be established between citizens and the European institutions and education are indispensable for developing genuine European citizens. She argues that there is a need for an essentially European way of communicating ideas and that solidarity is still an indispensable link between Europeans, as well as the need to devise and implement, "a new European politics" that is free from the domination of the respective member states but which can meet the aspirations of Europe's citizens. She warns that the credibility of democracy will one day be judged in this perspective and y outlining the ways forward that can facilitate the emergence of this kind of Europe reconciled with its citizens and which is able to freely operate.
(MT)
*** ANTONELLA VALMORBIDA (Editor): Citizen's Participation at the Local Level in Europe and Neighbouring Countries. Contribution of the Association of Local Democracy Agencies. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see address attached). 2014, 391 p. €42.80. ISBN 978-2-87574-181-3
In a lot of member states, democracy is not in as good shape as it could be and is antagonising or leaving indifferent increasingly large sections of society. At a level of the European Union, it is in even poorer shape where the level of voter turnout in the so-called European elections is extremely low, even though in reality these elections are 28 different national elections and which are regarded as of secondary importance among the majority of political parties. Added to this scenario, we now have the problem of managing the Greek crisis. It therefore appears quite appropriate that Jean-Marc Roirant's foreword to this book begins with the following, "Against the backdrop of austerity measures and facing some institutional slippages which put into question, and sometimes in danger, the democratic values and liberties which are the very pillars of the European building process, enshrined as such by the treaties, the public support to the European venture is dramatically declining". This activist from French civil society and a former chairman of the European Alliance for the European Year of Citizens 2013, is also bang on the money when he describes the transfer of national competences to the European sphere and where, on the contrary, "the triumph of intergovernmentalism on key fields of the European building process shows that our political leaders dramatically lack a collective vision and perspective for a common future, putting national self-interest ahead the European project". In this demoralising context, this book provides a breath of fresh air. He demonstrates how organisations of citizens within the Association of the Local Democracy Agencies can act at a practical level. A variety of examples involving this kind of citizens' action is given in this book at a level of the member states and outside the Union too. Particular attention focuses on the Balkan countries.
(MT)
*** JEAN-LOUIS QUERMONNE: Le système politique de l'Union européenne. LGDJ, Lextenso éditions (70 rue du Gouverneur Général Eboué, F-92131 Issy-les-Moulineaux. Tel: (33-1) 40934000 - Email: info@lextenso-editions.fr - Internet: http://www.lgdj.fr ). "Clefs/Politique" series. 2015, 160 pp. €19. ISBN 978-2-275-04103-2.
Jean-Louis Quermonne is an Emeritus Professor of political science who has taught at the Institutes of Political Studies at Grenoble and Paris, as well as at the College of Europe in Bruges. He is, incontestably, one of the most renowned specialists on Europe in France and has also headed the Reflection Group at the Commissariat on the Plan for Reforming the European Institutions, within the context of the ultimately aborted Constitutional Treaty. He is also one of the most gifted the European adventure and in this book, which is in its ninth edition, he demonstrates this to startling effect. In this publication, he explains with elegant clarity and robust objectivity, the major stages that have marked the history of European construction, such as the institutions, the modes of decision-making and the Union's political dimension. The picture he paints is exquisitely contemporary given that he managers to decode the Lisbon Treaty, as well as the intergovernmental agreements and treaties that the European leaders had to urgently adopt in an effort to tackle the economic and economic crisis impacting on the Union, particularly the Eurozone. In his book, he even tackles questions of the Brexit and asserts that the second half of the century will no longer see a confrontation between "federalists and unionists" because the Union is now in fact having to confront the question of globalisation. He argues that it is therefore up to the Union to adapt its member states to it in a necessary federation if it is not just to remain a free trade zone and failed political power. Future generations are therefore called on to, "complete the building of the Federation of Nation States that the previous half-century only began". The specific aim of this book is to provide these future generations with a, "minimum of data that will enable them to build on the approach of the founding fathers" and their determination to breeze life into, "an institution capable of becoming in the long term, more than just a common market but an irreplaceable actor on the international scene". As Monnet predicted, this task will be difficult until the Community has a specific objective and that that, "progress would halt at the boundaries where political power began and in this respect we have to invent things again". Judging by the evidence, the time really has come to begin inventing things once again!
(MT)
*** Fedechoses… pour le fédéralisme. Presse fédéraliste (Maison de l'Europe et des Européens, 242 rue Duguesclin, F-69003 Lyon. Internet: http://www.pressefederaliste.eu ). June 2015, No. 1687, 40 pp. €8. Annual subscription: €30.
This French federalist publication cultivates both a pugnacity and impertinence with which its author, Jean-Pierre Gouzy, woke up the European Council of last June from its slumbers to take good note of the decisions by the United Kingdom but asserts that, "its requests are, nonetheless, decisive with regard to the future of the European enterprise began 65 years ago on the initiative of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman". Mr Gouzy also points out in this perspective that, "a single federal currency disconnected from any power of the same nature is not viable in the long term". The other subjects tackled in this edition include the role played by the press in British Europhobia, the persistent lack of a Plan B ten years after the no vote on the constitutional treaty (Fabien Cazenave believes that any clarification that is to be offered will come from the European Parliament), "once the MEPs have the courage to come together to swear a European oath that will oturn the European Council's table upside down", the limits of the Junker Plan and the European struggle carried out by Alexis Tsipras, as well as the rise of populism etc…
(MT)
*** DOMENICO COSMAI: The Language of Europe. Multilingualism and Translation in the EU Institutions: Practice, Problems. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, CP 163, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503789 - fax: 6503794 - Email: editions@ulb.ac.be - Internet: http://www.editions-universite-bruxelles.be ). "Etudes européennes" series. 2014, 235 pp. €22. ISBN 978-2-8004-1574-1.
With 15 years of experience at the Italian translation unit at the European Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions, Domenico Cosmai, has accumulated a wealth of practical knowledge regarding multilingualism and the way the different translation services at the European institutions operate. He is now head of another section at the Economic and Social Committee and has drawn on his linguistic investments in theoretical and practical learning, which he has included in two books written in Italian and which formed the basis of this book, translated into English by David Albert Best, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Criminality at the Free University of Brussels. In the first part of the book, the author describes how multilingualism is organised and managed within the European Union. This is followed by an account of the historic and political circumstances that modelled this policy and influenced the work of the services involved in this field, such as the translators and interpreters, linguistic revises and linguists/legal experts. He then sets about the jargon that has developed in the European institutional arena, followed by a look at the practical work carried out at a linguistic level in the different institutions. He also looks at the changes that have been brought about by information technologies and the practical barriers facing translators, such as when a German translator had to find a way to translate, "the members of the Commission exercise the functions allocated to them by the president and under his authority"…, in the knowledge that "Autorität" in German is a false friend, with a solution being found in the use of the term "Leitung", which signifies leadership or guidance. This book contains a wealth of practical examples of this kind, on the basis of translated texts taken from the different sectors and covered by the two Committees. Contrary to the other institutions, these committees translate all the documents in all the languages of the Union and not exclusively from English and French. (MT)