*** PAT COX: De la crise économique à une crise politique dans l'Union européenne? Fondation Jean Monnet pour l'Europe (Ferme de Dorigny, CH-1015 Lausanne. Tel: (41-21) 6922090 - Fax: 6922095 - Email: secr@fjme.unil.ch - Internet: http://www.jean-monnet.ch ). 'Débats et documents' series, No. 3. 2015, 60 pp.
Formerly president of the European Parliament before becoming the president of the European International Movement, Pat Cox is an economist by training and went in the direction of journalism for a while, when he was a news presenter on Ireland's national television chain. This adjunct of skills gives bright piquancy to this publication emerging from the inaugural speech he gave in Lausanne on 12 March when he became the president of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe. In it, he defends the idea that Europe needs a new Monnet era, his demonstration of this being all the more convincing in that he does not sacrifice himself to the platitudes so valued in the leading circles of Europe.
Pat Cox does not hesitate to launch an uncompromising attack on the role Germany now plays at the heart of the European project. He explains that since 2008, 'the global economy has experienced its deepest period of recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the eurozone is at the epicentre of it.' It would be daft to blame this on Berlin… were it not for the fact that Germany: i) was the first to break the 3% public deficit rule - and 'more than once'; ii) has possibly learned too great a lesson from the fact that Hitler's Germany was 'one of the first to adopt a policy of Keynesian reflation' in the 1930s, the hegemony of the Nazi regime leading German post-war leaders to obstinately take cover behind a rigid ordoliberalism to avoid any return to a laisser-faire capitalism, as a member of the European Central Bank's Executive Council, Jurgen Starck, put it, explaining in the Financial Times that it was crucial for people (by which understand countries, particularly Greece) should shoulder the 'consequences of their own decisions,' not to mention the fact that 'banks' losses should not be borne by the whole of society.' Pat Cox, who comes from a country that also had to suffer humiliating terms of austerity, replies to this that 'many taxpayers in Ireland and Spain would have wished the latter proposal was correct when their banks collapsed and they then had to pay their debts to German banks among others.' The crucial accusation, however, lies elsewhere, in the Schuldenbremse, the new law acting as a brake on debt and which Pat Cox says reveals that 'the dread of debt in Germany seems to be spreading to a more general aversion to public investment,' as witnessed, he says, by the sorry state of bridges in Germany. While decisions about public investment naturally come under national sovereignty, knowing Germany's importance in the eurozone, shouldn't they also be seen as 'a question of common European interest?' Germany is turning a blind eye to calls in this direction by the Commission and the International Monetary Fund, as if the efforts it demands of countries 'guilty' of budget laxity in order to safeguard the single currency, this 'common European interest,' could strangely adapt to a discretionary policy without much solidarity from Germany… A trifle odd, surely?
Is Pat Cox affected by anti-German impulses, an accusation very often made against those with the impudence to challenge the role now played by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Germany? No, definitely not! His message is that a policy desired by a country for its own historical reasons cannot apply to a group of countries that have different histories. He exhorts for an abandoning of the 'reforms with stagnation' preferred by one country and countries in its orbit because they risk 'becoming a political gift par excellence for populists and extreme politicians in Europe.' Clearly, one needs to escape from intergovernmentalism where the law of the fittest always prevails to rebuild a 'community of destinies' able to ensure solidarity and discipline after democratically determining the 'common interest.' Hence Pat Cox's appeal for a econsideration of the Community approach' and the 'Monnet method.' We have arrived today at a Union reduced by States to the 'acquis' - and even then we have yet to learn which acquis the United Kingdom will shortly still deign to concede. Surely inviting European citizens to become the artisans of a Community of Destinies is a more enthusiastic project that is more in resonance with the challenges to be faced today?
Michel Theys
*** Futuribles. L'anticipation au service de l'action. Futuribles Sarl (47 rue de Babylone, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 - Fax: 42226554 - Email: revue@futuribles.com - Internet: http://www.futuribles.com ). September-October 2015, No. 408, 116 pp, €22. Annual subscription: €115. ISBN 978-2-84387-421-5.
In this issue of the Futuribles future prospects review, Jean-François Drevet devotes his European column to the question of whether David Cameron's Great Britain might really leave the Union. The former European Commission official writes that if this were to happen, the EU would 'not be in danger of falling apart,' explaining why the same would not apply to the British themselves, since he does not seem to think that anything positive could result from 'this fatal march towards splits and isolation.' The way he sees it, nothing should encourage London's partners to agree to the implementation of EU decisions by the United Kingdom being subject to agreement from the House of Commons - which would 'represent a major step backwards in what is already a slow, complex decision-making system' - or that the establishment of European citizens in this country could be subject to restrictions - which could also penalise the nearly two million British citizens living, working or spending their retirement over the Channel. Clearly, the referendum promised by David Cameron (who, like others, is guilty of seeing 'the world as it used to be rather than as it actually is') will, the review suggests, invite the British to somewhat shoot themselves in the foot. This need to perceive the world as it is and how it is changing runs through the other topics addressed, be it the digital agenda that is upsetting company organisation and management, the role that could be played by cities in the struggle against climate change in a world where 'welfare- metropolises' could gradually substitute for the flagging welfare state, and the potentialities of civil service. (MT)
*** Dokumente / Documents. Zeitschrift für den deutsch-französischen Dialog / Revue du dialogue franco-allemand. Verlag Dokumente (86 Dottendorfer Strasse, D-53129 Bonn. Tel: (49-228) 92129365 - Fax: 690385 - Email: aboservice@dokumente-documents.info - Internet: http://www.dokumente-documents.info ). 2015, No. 3, €7. Annual subscription: €18.90.
Accompanied by a fine pullout to mark the seventieth anniversary of this bilingual review (a page in German and the facing page in French) which Jesuit Jean du Riveauafin wanted to get the French and Germans to at last learn to understand each other better and dialogue with each other in order to form a partnership, this issue of Dokumente / Documents hits home more than ever, denouncing some 'residues of Germanophobia.' No doubt Germany is paying the price for an over-intergovernmental management of the European Union, but this issue is not mentioned in the review. On the contrary, it confirms that France and Germany alone preserve the capacity to steer the European project as long, that is, that they manage to act 'as a kind of hinge to ensure balance among the different interest groups' that can be discerned among the member states. At any rate, it reports on an opinion poll showing that both French and German citizens want enhanced cooperation between Paris and Berlin to tackle terrorism. Other articles include a call in favour of the Council of Europe. (MT)
*** PETROS PAPACONSTANTINOU: La gauche, le gouvernement et l'État. Des analysesclassiques, desexpériences actuelles. Editions Livanis (98 Solonos, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3661200 - Fax: 3617791 - Email: webmaster@livanis.gr - Internet: http://www.livanis.gr ). 2015, 386 pp, €18. ISBN 978-960-14-2946-5.
Can the ballot box pave the way for radical change? What can be hoped for from the left in government when the real power remains in the hands of 'enemies'? In the small nation-state of Greece, what margins do implacable globalisation and 'German Europe' leave for a political alternative? Is there life after the euro? These pressing questions raised by the interminable economic crisis, the storm of memorandums and the ventures of the Syriza government form the basis for this new book by Petros Papaconstantinou, a senior reporter and editorialist for Greek newspaper 'Kathimerini.' In his view, the manifest problem all these left currents have in providing coherent answers is partly due to their lack of preparation for the exercise of political power and their inability to deal with the crucial problems facing the State. Combining political theory with historic experience, and also revisiting the works of Marxist thinkers, both classical and contemporary, the author reaches a number of conclusions about the crucial situation Greece finds itself in today. Rejecting the mechanical transfer of ready-made formulae, he mainly encourages the collective effort needed for a concrete analysis of the concrete situation, which Lenin saw as Marxism's living soul. He also highlights some lively, fertile controversies among the various currents of Marxist thought detected over the course of the past 170 years, going back to the People's Spring of 1848, the Paris Commune of 1871, the wave of worker revolutions that swept across Europe from 1917 to 1923, the fight against fascism, the Popular Front in France and the betrayed Spanish Revolution, May 1968, the experience of Popular Unity in Chile and, finally, the recent emergence of a new left in Latin America. (AKa)
*** YANNIS LOULIS: Lagrande punition. Comment les partis dominants dans la période d'après la dictature ont été brisés (2012-2015). Editions Kastaniotis (11 rue Zalongou, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3301208 - Fax: 3842431 - Emaill: info@kastaniotis.com - Internet: http://www.kastaniotis.com ). 2015,313 pp, €15.98. ISBN 978-960-03-5866-7.
How come the two parties that have dominated Greek politics since the fall of the dictatorship in 1974, viz. Pasok and New Democracy, have now been overtaken by the radical left formation Syriza, as was confirmed again in the general elections in January? In reality, the two political groupings were already worn-out, rusty and decadent when they won a Pyrrhic victory in 2012 promising them an uncertain future. Since then, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has been weaving heavy punishment for them. This book presents and analyses the causes and stages in the descent into hell of the two parities for which the last European elections were 'the beginning of the end.' The author spends time on the errors committed by the panic-stricken Samaras government, and the worst campaign ever in the history of New Democracy. He discerns the 'seven cardinal sins' of a country in crisis that are hanging over Alexis Tsipras too if he does not make vital changes. This is Yannis Loulis' third book since the start of the crisis. A political analyst active at Essex University, where he lectures in political behaviour and writes columns in a number of Greek newspapers, he continues to investigate the causes of the crisis that is hitting Greece and in what way the two parties that have dominated the political landscape in Greece in recent decades are to blame for it, as they regularly shared more than 80% of the vote until Syriza effected a political earthquake in the country. The author says that Syriza would not have shot to power so spectacularly without Tsipras, but neither would it have suddenly come to power like that without… Samaras (New Democracy) and Venizelos (Pasok), who became Tsipras' best allies at that historical juncture. (AKa)
*** ARMIN VON BOGDANDY, PÁL SONNEVEND (Eds.: Constitutional Crisis in the European Constitutional Area. Theory, Law and Politics in Hungary and Romania. 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 ). 2015, 378 pp. ISBN 978-1-84946-464-2.
Some have claimed to believe and, worse still, some populists continue to claim to believe, that European law was a threat for national constitutions that protect democracy and fundamental freedoms. The situation in Hungary and Romania demonstrate quite the opposite: it is their own national leaders who are jeopardising fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law. This is demonstrated by the authors brought together in these pages, pointing out as the editors put it that 'European institutions do not yet possess a sufficiently effective set of instruments to address constitutional crisis' in member states. For Hungary, the contributions shed light on various tangible consequences of a crisis fed by both a permanent constitution-making by the governing majority in Parliament and by 'a gradual deterioration of the guarantees of fundamental rights' and a lack of effective checks and balances. Other contributions show that the situation is almost as worrying in Romania although the constitution is not under constant threat there. In this context, the lack of means at the disposal of the European Union and the Council of Europe is cruelly highlighted, before very tangible proposals are finally formulated for remedying the situation. (PBo