*** FEDERICO FABBRINI, ERNST HIRSCH BALLIN, HAN SOMSEN (Editors): What Form of Government for the European Union and the Eurozone? Hart Publishing (16C Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 - fax: 510710 - Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk - Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). "Modern Studies in European Law" series. 2015, 313 pp. £60. ISBN 978-1-84946-810-7.
This publication stems from a conference organised in June last year at the School of Law in Tilburg. It takes us to the very heart of the illness but would it not be more suitable if it were to speak clearly about the malaise that the European Union and, more particularly, the Eurozone have themselves created since the multifaceted crisis struck? The situation in which Europe's political leaders have until now imagined a thousand and one different tricks to try and make sure that Pandora's constitutional box remained hermetically sealed as long as possible. The specialists from the academic community contributing to this book put forward a number of questions that it is no longer possible to dismiss, following the chaos that has presided the litany of successive calls to abandon ship and the serious democratic deficit that has resulted from the situation. As the editors explain in their introduction, although it is true that a society with a constitution should be able to ensure the protection of fundamental rights and the separation of powers, it is more imperative now than ever to establish, "what kind of separation of powers" prevails in the Union and Eurozone, if indeed this is going to be the objective pursued. They explain that this is now quite clearly more important than ever because it is crucial to establish what kind of institutional reform can make the Union's institutional system more efficient and legitimate if it is to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.
This is precisely the task that the different authors of the contributions included in this book attempt to fulfil. The great value of the book also resides in the total freedom of thought the authors of the contributions included in this publication display: the ideas and reflections exposed in these pages are extremely diverse and sometimes contradictory but they succeed in providing readers with the possibility of making up their own minds and opinions. The only shared conviction among them or is that, "the time of courageous constitutional reforms has come" and the book's editors, as well as Sylvie Goulard MEP, argue in the preface that the management of the Eurozone crisis provoked the negative impact of profoundly affecting relations between member states. This Liberal and Democratic MEP from France is not wrong when she warns that, "only strong institutions can safeguard the rights of the small member states and reinforce and sustain confidence". This is in fact one of the main lessons from the chaotic somersaults of the governance of recent years. It remains to be seen, however, what practical lessons can be drawn from all this.
The toolbox of possible innovations outlined throughout the five different parts of this book are as follows. In the first part, the authors examine the way in which the Eurozone crisis impacted on governance in the Union and Eurozone. The European Council is obviously in the spotlight in this respect because it allocated itself the task of chief rescue party but without, as pointed out by Paul Craig (St John's College, Oxford), providing itself with the capacity to manage problems in a systematic way, as the Commission and European Central Bank would have done. Resorting to the intergovernmental method, to the detriment of the Community equivalent also leaves three other writers feeling concerned but not everybody would follow, however, Christian Calliess (Free University of Berlin) when he puts forward the rather hackneyed idea of creating a "Euro Parliament" consisting of national MPs capable of fundamentally changing the approach hitherto advocated. The second part of the book focuses on the institutional systems that have emerged over recent years for governing economic, monetary and banking policies. This is followed by a number of writers who subsequently tackle the issues of the democratic deficit that has appeared during this period. It transpires, in brief, that the democratic representative body has seriously suffered from the apparently irresistible rise in power of the executive when it could have in fact benefited from doing the opposite to assert its position in the future. Participative democracy only appears capable of playing a less important role in this whole affair. In the fourth part of the book, the authors look at the possible parlementarisation of the Commission. Even though it is not possible to go back to the precedent decided in the choice of President Juncker, nothing proves that this development has ultimately been totally positive and two authors develop diametrically opposed viewpoints on the introduction of Spitzenkandidaten in the European arena. Finally, in the last part of the book, a number of different lessons are drawn, for example, on the role of the European Council and the inter-Parliamentarianism accompanying, according to Valentin Kreilinger, inter-governmentalism. The final word goes to Professor of Law, Federico Fabbrini, for whom the evidence would suggest that only a revision of the treaties would enable the European Union and Eurozone to develop a strong and accountable government.
Obviously, there are going to be a number of so-called "wise men" who regard the current mind-set of Europeans as a kind of cautious wait-and-see approach. Nonetheless, they would be wrong. Firstly, because, as strongly emphasised by Sylvie Goulard, "citizens frequently accuse Europe of not doing what it has in fact been authorised to do" and what the national governments, some more than others, prevented from doing. Therefore, rather than leaving this European disenchantment to grow by their constitutional inaction, would not the member states do better, to the disgust of the United Kingdom, of admitting, as this French MEP invites them to do, that an "optimum Europe, developed with robust intellectual rigour, has more chance of convincing public opinion than a minimum Europe, which always finds itself frustrated, as borne out by experience"? Just posing the question is in fact somewhat providing the answer?
Michel Theys
*** GEORGE VASSALOS, LEONIDAS VATIKIOTIS (editors): Qui a besoin de l'Union européenne ? Editions Kapsimi (55-57 rue Zoodochou Pigis, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3813838 - fax: 3839713 - email: info@kapsimi.gr - Internet: http://www.kapsimi.gr ). 2015, 304 pp. €15. ISBN 978-618-5156-01-5.
This collectively written publication provides both a study and critical analysis of the European Union and the process of capitalist integration for which it was the driving force at all the different levels in Europe. The different contributions by researchers, journalists, political scientists, economists and trade unionists highlight the reactionary manoeuvrings that developed in the context of the capitalist crisis and they denounce the antidemocratic policies of Fortress Europe, the reactionary changes introduced in the labour market and society, which have led to the impoverishment of vast swathes of people, to the benefit of the powerful multinationals, which have, on many occasions, been European companies themselves. The roles played by the European Central Bank, Commission, European Parliament, the Euro and its mechanisms are analysed in the same connection. Together with George Vassalos, a researcher at the Multinational Europe Observatory and Leonidas Vatikiotis, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Varna (Cyprus) and a member of a research centre on the currency and finance at the University of London, the different writers seek to provide clarity regarding the objective pursued by those who created the European Union and those that wanted their country to become a member but who have experienced the economic and political domination of European capitalism, which has ensured that its interests prevail over those of the people of the nation states and the social majority in Europe. This is why they argue that the Union is not being gradually "reformed" and cannot become "the Europe of the people". The moral of this unsurprisingly ideological demonstration is that in the name of the fight against capitalism, it is necessary to break with the European Union as soon as possible.
(AKa)
*** KATERINA CHATZITHEODOROU: La victoire de la démocratie et une nouvelle Constitution. Et une interprétation hérétique de la crise mondiale. Editions Govosti (73 rue Zoodochou Pigis, GR-10681Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822251 - fax: 3816661 - email: cotsos@govostis.gr - Internet: http://www.govostis.gr. 2014, 304 pp. €12.80. ISBN 978-960-446-228-5.
How does the Global System and the European subsystem function in Greece? How do they succeed in permanently imposing their will? What are their characteristics, structures, methods and authorities? Why has the Greek people failed almost every time in getting its demands met? What does political autonomy really mean? Is a collective political subject possible, the Greek people, capable of asserting its political autonomy and, in the affirmative, will this lead to economic liberalisation? How should a Constitution be interpreted and who is its guarantor? What can be done to this end in the here and now and how should we prepare for a better future? These are some of the questions tackled in this publication, which are very critical and denounce a rampant totalitarianism sought by the global oligarchy. Its author develops an "heretical" position that goes against the stream of generally accepted ideas. Her starting point is the conviction that the global crisis was something deliberate and planned by the "System" for the reasons indicated in this publication and subsequently interpreted. Katerina Chatzitheodorou is a civil engineer who also seeks to establish why the Greek people have never even agreed on a Constitution that would enable it to exact its revenge. A number of proposals are put forward as to how this Constitution should be structured in view of providing each citizen with their free political will. Protecting the planet, the internationalism of the left, immigration and the case of "Golden Dawn" are some of the other themes tackled in the contributions that seek the victory of democracy and the political liberation of the Greek people.
(AKa)
*** TAKIS FOTOPOULOS: La chronique d'une catastrophe 2010-2015. Des mémorandums des partis politiques systémiques Pasok / Nouvelle Démocratie au mémorandum de "gauche" de Syriza. Éditions Gordios (5 rue Manis, GR-10433 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 8252279 - fax: 8210506 - email: gordios@otenet.gr). 2015, 472 pp. €26.50. ISBN 978-960-6826-66-5.
The main goal of this book is to highlight the fraudulent methods used by the foreign and local elite during the period of destruction that struck Greece between 2010 and 2015. The media controlled by the major press groups and the newspapers, including social media and the supposedly "alternative" media have also helped fool the less well-off classes on a number of occasions and who have been, in particular, the victims of globalisation. According to Professor Fotopoulos, an expert in the economy and feature writer the number of Greek newspapers, as well as being the director of the Democracy in Nature and the International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, based in London, the goal has been to establish apathy or the loyalty of the deceitful organs responsible for forming public opinion, in an effort to help establish the New Global Order or in other words, neoliberal globalisation. The author examines the chronology of the events during the years of the destruction, the systematic deception of the Greek people as to the real causes of the disaster, the role of the media to this end, the role of corruption within the left, the bad habits of the anti-systemic left, the current government and the accusations of its "criminal fiasco", describing its action since the July referendum up until the elections last September. All these different questions contained within this publication beg the question: what is to be done now?
(AKa)
*** YANNIS MILIOS: De la crise au gouvernement de la gauche. La stratégie des besoins. Éditions Pedio (10 rue Davaki, GR-11526 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3390204 - fax: 3390209 - Email: info@pediobooks.gr - Internet: http://www.pediobooks.gr ). « Théorie Économique et Politique » series. 2015, 240 pp. ISBN 978-960-546207-9.
Yannis Milios is a lecturer in political economy at the Polytechnic School of Athens and since January last year, has been an MP in the radical left Syriza party. In this book he provides the reader with his vision of the history of social and political conflict raging in Greece and Europe over the past five years. The causes of the crisis are therefore described and analysed in Marxist terms and the author seeks to demonstrate that the policy carried out through the memoranda have been invalid because of the contradiction between the proclaimed objectives and the real goals of the political leaders. He also explains the conflict between the government of Tsipras and the national and foreign interests underpinning the memoranda are crystallise on the policies of austerity and a determination to maintain the wealth and power in hands of the dominant classes. Yannis Milios seeks to provide an alternative left proposal by analysing the crises of neoliberalism and developing a Marxist perspective based on the debt crisis. He subsequently criticises the way in which the European governments have undermined the future, which has paved the way to the success of the left in Greece. In this book, he also denounces the emergence of the "white Chinese" employee concept (minimum wages, atrocious working conditions etc.) and explains how the Euro functions, why competition exists everywhere in the world and how it functions, as well as the way the new capitalist order is structured. An extensive bibliography also accompanies the book.
(AKa)
*** KATHARINA GNATH, JORG HAAS: A Fiscal Union for Europe - Building Block and Not a Magic Bullet. Bertelsmann Stiftung (256 Carl Bertelsmann Straße, D-33311 Gütersloh. Internet: http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/spotlight ). “Spotlight Europe” series, No. 2015/04, 7 pp.
In this issue of “Spotlight Europe”, available on the Internet, researchers Katharina Gnath (Bertelsmann Stiftung) and Jörg Haas (Jacques Delors Institute of Berlin) point out that budgetary union can only create stability if it includes credible budget rules and some kind of risk sharing. It is, therefore, no universal panacea but rather a specific development that could help stabilise the Eurozone, provided that a structured process manages to construct a raft of reforms that are understood by all the different partners. (PBo)