*** BERTRAND VAYSSIERE (Ed.): Penser les frontières européennes au XXIe siècle. Réflexion croisée des sciences sociales. 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 ). "Europe des cultures" series, No. 13. 2015, 235 pp, €40.70. ISBN 978-2-87574-266-7.
These days, borders lie at the upper end of roads leading throughout Europe to 'business cafes' that are full to bursting, which is why this book is so useful for people wishing to resist the tidal waves of populism and extremism. It addresses this eminently European question by refusing to allow it this time to lay itself open, like so many other political issues connected with the European construction, to 'all manner of obsessive fears and hijackings.' The researchers brought together in this book (after meeting together physically at the third 'Amphis de l'Europe' days organised by the university world of Toulouse in March 2014) examine this in a rigorous scientific manner, putting it in its rightful place in terms of law, history, geography, sociology and political science.
It goes without saying that this approach, poles apart from demagogy contains a few rattle snakes for people who regard national borders as sacred. As historian Bertrand Vayssière explains in the introduction, calling for the 'transformational of a border into a horizon,' runs the risk of being unpopular, pointing out that borders are 'never innocent' and very rarely 'natural,' being nothing more than a 'device that first served to affirm a sovereignty, and therefore a State, usually in opposition to others.' At the same time, 'border' and 'Europe' have become virtually 'an oxymoron,' since 'the European construction has (…) the aim of bringing together peoples and making internal limits disappear, but borders are there to divide, and to define a particular territory.' However, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, geographical Europe has not ceased to justify its status as 'the most cultured of all the continents.' And it is a fact that the attacks currently undergone by Schengen and internal borders that are claimed to be too porous, demonstrate the persistence of borders in the collective imagination. They no doubt also reveal the fuzziness of the Union's external borders, notably in the light of a globalisation that rubs out national and regional sensitivities and specificities. It has been confirmed at any rate that 'borders have been an identity marker' and remain so for some people. Bertrand Vayssière says it is crucial to 'take account of this reality' for this means 'taking account of history, which one cannot disregard unless one wants to leave it to populists, who are always ready to manhandle it to legitimise fear of the 'Other' and a return to the time of military marches and tollhouses at the gates of our towns and suburbs.' How better could one summarise what is truly at stake in the current tensions around the subject of borders?
The contributions brought together in these pages look in the first section at institutions and policies relating to borders, be it in terms of their (re)activation or their subduing. Among other things, it is shown that 'the southern border of Europe is an excellent area for observing the discrepancy between formal rights and rights in practice' for migrants, and the obvious problem of balancing 'the books between human rights and public order rights.' The second, more pragmatic, section of the book increases the number of angles of approach using case studies pulled from time and space. While it is obviously impossible to give an exhaustive account, referring to two of these contributions will illustrate the utility of all of them. Firstly, how could one fail to appreciate the full value of the contribution by Victor Pereira, reader in contemporary history at the University of Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, on the clandestine migration of the Portuguese that was encouraged by France under General de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou to compete with a far less desired workforce from Algeria and to hold out, in the Common Market, on Germany? This confirms the opportunism of States and, above all, is given greater piquancy by the fact that a few years later, this illegal immigration was not without influence in Portugal's acceptance of their country joining the European Community.
The other contribution selected at random is a brilliant one by Philippe Dugot on the subject, as Philippe Vayssière puts it, of the 'border that is as old as Europe itself, the Mediterranean.' This geographer who lectures at Université de Toulouse 2 - Jean Jaurès writes that the Mediterranean basis in the ideal place for testing the postulate that borders are 'simply an expression of differences,' and can serve to strengthen them or lessen them. He demonstrates that the Mediterranean is the theatre of a 'form of geopolitical schizophrenia/ bearing witness to 'a mutual hesitation to open up to others,' the European Union's policy being in his view 'quite symptomatic of this paradox.' He does not fail to point out that the fate reserved for immigrants by the European Union is an embarrassing revealer of the asymmetry desired by Europeans, with 'the Mediterranean as a holiday location that is two or three hours' flight away, superimposed on a Mediterranean drawn up by the Frontex agency of patrols, barbed wire and other radars.' No doubt it is no longer necessary to 'point out the relations entertained with Kaddafi, who was happy to use them as an element of blackmail,' but is the question really being raised in a radically different manner with the agreement reached with Turkey's President Erdogan a fortnight ago by the members of the European Council? And in this tragic period of increasing terrorist violence, surely one should remember that no doubt 'the border between Europe and the rest of the Mediterranean lies as much in the process of urban segregation as in the ghettoisation of some of our fellow citizens'? Which goes to explain this author's conviction that the Mediterranean remains, above all, to be constructed. Isn't that a utopia to be welcomed, as the European utopia that has been in the process of realisation for more than sixty years is being given more of a battering than ever by nostalgia for supposedly hermetic borders? Michel Theys
*** COSTAS KOLMER: La pause de l'accord de Schengen et la crise de la zone euro. Editions Livanis (98 rue Solonos, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3661200 - Fax: 3617791 - Email: webmaster@livanis.gr - Internet: http://www.livanis.gr ). 2015, 160 pp, €9.90. ISBN 978-960-14-2984-7.
When something goes awry in the European Union or if Germany doesn't make any profit, then agreements fall by the wayside. A recent example of this was the abolition of the free circulation for individuals within the Union, the reintroduction of border controls in Germany and Chancellor Merkel's request for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa to be relocated in partner European countries. Against this backdrop, Costas Kolmer observes that Greece is suffering a further slowdown in its annual economic growth, the seventh since 2009, and is still the victim of the rules imposed by Berlin for the purchase of capital, and this is happening while she is being led to adjust her national identity due to the mass influx of refugees and immigrants from Turkey. When the credit crunch in the Greek bank system was diagnosed, Mario Draghi, the governor of the European Central Bank, failed again to apply the Maastricht Treaty, the Bank of Greece was forced to introduce capital controls and restrict withdrawals from banks to 60 euros a day. According to the author, an economist and grand editorialist on Greek newspapers, over and above destruction of the Greek economy, the country could well be hit by ethnocide since Hellenism is threatened with annihilation due to the unpardonable errors of leadership committed over the past forty years, along with the implacable laws of demographics. In any case, says Costas Kolmer, people's confidence in the European partners is fast approaching zero. (AKa)
*** SOTI TRIANTAFILLOU: Le pluralisme, le multiculturalisme, l'intégration, l'assimilation. Notes pourla sociétémoderne et ouverte. Editions Patakis (38 Panayi Tsaldari, GR-10437 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3650000 - Fax: 3811940 - Email: bookstore@patakis.gr - Internet: http://www.patakis.gr ).'Sciences sociales et politiques' series. 2015, 368 pp, €17. ISBN 978-960-166446-0.
These days, Western countries are stuck in a dead-end of decadence and self-loathing. They are also suffering from the economic and institutional turbulence generated by immigration policies and the multicultural practices that became the norm in the early 1950s. These consequences then festered under the impact of the international economic situation, the rising power of Islamo-fascism and the re-born conflict between East and West. Well-known writer and historian, Soti Triantafillou explains in this book that multicultural practices and the corresponding theoretical perceptions have led in Western democracies to the emergence of isolated minority enclaves. Fragmentation and mistrust arise from this among social groups, along with hostility and violent clashes. Faced with ever more diverse forms of Islamic fundamentalism, with fanaticism and obscurantism being transferred to and cultivated in the West, the governments concerned continue to apply programmes based on multicultural complacency and blindness, which end up paving the way for parties of the far right or that build on this issue, since scepticism has grown so strong in the population over immigration policies and tackling Islamo-fascism. As the first round of regional elections has just demonstrated in France, these often Eurosceptic parties are constantly gaining ground, despite being wrong about just above everything. The author says, however, that they are right because the West is indeed under threat from a bellicose Islam that wants to destroy its values. In this essay, Soti Triantafillou comments on Republican values, calls for managed immigration that does not undermine social cohesion, criticises multiculturalism as the agent of segmentation in practice and a weakening of demographic institutions. Finally, she also traces out ways in which migrants' contributions to the economy can be recognised and their desire can be met for integrating into society by accepting Western laws and values. (AKa)
*** KATHARINA FRANK: Eheverträge als effektives Gestaltungsinstrument, die Grenzen der Privatautonomie im englischen und deutschen Sachrecht sowie im europäischen Zivilverfahrens- und Kollisionsrecht. Peter Lang (see above). 2015, 205 pp, €69.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65661-7.
Katharina Frank starts from the principle that the aim of a marriage contract, like any other contract, is to allow the individual freedom for each of the contractual parties to be achieved. In the case of a marriage contract, however, there are a number of obstacles to the application of this principle when the legal systems of different countries are involved. These existing limits in practice on the individual freedoms of the parties to the marriage contract (be they imposed in practice, by a national legal system or by European rules on the conflict of laws) are the subject of this thesis. The author shows how in the current situation, marriage contracts are not entirely capable of accomplishing their aim of protecting the weaker party to the contract, or even the children arising from the marriage. This demonstration is based on a comparison of English and German laws in this domain. In order to allow the proper implementation of marriage contract clauses, European legislator is invited to continue its harmonisation work as a matter of urgency. (GLe)
*** SEVERINE MENETREY, BURKHARD HESS (Eds.): Les dialogues de juges en Europe. Éditions Larcier (Espace Jacqmotte, 139 rue Haute, Loft 6, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480711 - Fax: 5139091 - Email: commande@larciergroup.com - Internet: http://www.larciergroup.com )."Faculté de Droit, d'Économie et de Finance de l'Université de Luxembourg" series. 2014, 394 pp, €65. ISBN 978-2-8044-7170-5.
The notion of dialogue among judges covers a number of acceptances, particularly in the context of the European Union. As Burkhard Hess (managing director of the Max Planck Institute in the Grand Duchy capital) explains in the preface, 'the idea of dialogue among judges' was invented by the European Court of Justice 'in the context of the sending back of cases,' which now gives rise to very lively dialogue between European and national courts. A recent change in the concept, however, now covers dialogue among judges in cross-border cases, whether concerning family law, insolvency, or information to be provided in civil and commercial matters. This book follows on from a conference held in Luxembourg, and aims to clarify the various acceptances of the notion of dialogue among judges. Initially the theoretical and semantic aspects of these dialogues are reviewed, which demonstrate 'the need to adopt a flexible, pluralist concept.' The dialogues are then declined in the field of constitutional law, particularly when it comes to fundamental rights and the various domains of private European law, particularly the law of collective procedures, family law and various aspects of international private judicial law. Finally, the third section sees the authors discuss the prospects for direct judicial communications. (PBo)
*** Commission en direct. European Commission européenne (Communications Unit, DG HR D.3, CE-SC11, 01/18. Fax: (32-2) 2999285). October 2054, 62 pp.
Among other things, this issue of this European Commission internal publication contains a very comprehensive special report on the phenomenon of migration and the masses of refugees putting the European Union under pressure and forcing it to reconcile short-term humanitarian needs with longer-term objectives. (MT)