*** FREDERIC ALLEMAND, MATHIEU BION, JEAN-LUC SAURON: Gouverner la zone euro après la crise: l'exigence d'intégration. Gualino éditeur (Lextenso éditions, 70 rue du Gouverneur général Eboué, F-92131 Issy-les-Moulineaux cedex. Tel: (33-1865) 40934000 - fax: 40518185 - Internet: http://www.lextenso-editions.fr ). 2016, 254 pp. €26. ISBN 978-2-297-05270-2.
Economic and Monetary Union has always been a rather baroque kind of construction. Since the beginning of the systemic crisis in Greece, which has shaken the country to its foundations since the beginning of the decade, a new entanglement of rules, mechanisms, bodies and procedures have been developed blow by blow as an emergency response because the pressure of events is at risk of turning the situation into a fatal crisis for the single currency. Suddenly, the problem is not so small any longer and it is legitimate that the majority of European citizens, even those of whom are the most educated informed, are no longer able to see the wood for the trees. The three authors of this book have not been excessive in their clarification of all these indigestible institutional intricacies. The strength of their work can be located in the way that they meld their knowledge and skills in an excellent pedagogic exercise that successfully makes everything accessible to the "ordinary man or woman in the street" that are eager to find clear and reliable explanations as to the way in which the management of the euro is provided.
Frédéric Allemand (coordinator of European studies at the Virtual Knowledge Centre in Europe, in Luxembourg), Jean-Luc Sauron (European legal delegate to the French Council of State and Professor at the Université Paris-Dauphine and a prolific author) and Mathieu Bion, well known by readers of at Agence Europe because as well as being the current editor-in-chief of the publication, he is also in charge of the economic and financial news, first of all present the evolving modalities and shortcomings in the coordination of economic policies. This has for a long time and to a significant extent consisted of, "wishful thinking" and has subsequently often reached nothing other than a dead end. Jean Monnet was therefore right, they point out, when in his Memoirs he denounced the limitations to the coordination provided in the following terms, "They do not allow for the relationship between human beings and countries to be transformed in the circumstances where the Union is necessary. It is the expression of national power, as it stands: it cannot change this and it will never create unity". Despite the progress that the "Six-Pack and the Two-Pack" created, this verdict is still valid because, "no transfer of competences has ever been achieved from a national to European level". This means that the question of democratic legitimacy is still pertinent with regard to the decisions taken because it is still true that the Council, as an institution, is accountable to no one". The authors then look at the subject of budgetary discipline and they subsequently explain why the French senators Joël Bourdin and Yvon Collin were quite right in 2007 to, "to talk about the incoordination of budgetary policies" rather than their coordination. In this connection, the Six-Pack and the Two-Pack, as well as other instruments are methodologically presented throughout the book as a means to slightly enhance the authority of the Union but which remain, however, insufficient because they, "continue to be deployed in an outmoded Maastrichtian constitutional framework". The authors then examine, "the financial instruments of solidarity" (European Financial Stability Fund, European Stability Mechanism, etc.) and the modalities underpinning their inventions, particularly by way of the role played by the Troika in Greece. The verdict is overtly critical, "any country benefiting from aid has seen its public debt spiral, unemployment explode and its youth forced into exile in other countries in the euro zone, without even mentioning the social inequalities that have deepened with the crisis, even in the countries that have not been subject to a bailout plan".
The question of democratic control has not been any more prioritised in this context either…
Finally, only the European Central Bank, with its "forced pragmatism" has any sort of saving grace, according to the authors and upon which they focus their final chapter and the painstaking development of banking union. All this "clinical" data, together with explanatory boxed text notes on a number of extremely important points, in addition to a glossary reveal that the, "Union and the member states have attempted to locate and are continuing to locate a third way between a form of coordination that no longer provides the means to rethink its future or increase the transfer of competencies to a bold Union capable of finding his place in a period of crisis". They explain that this is why Eurozone governance has turned into, "a legal and political balancing act" and still remains, "complex, illegible and difficult to understand, even for an educated public". Thanks to this book, this assessment will be a little less true for those who have read it. Notwithstanding the fact that Commissioner Pierre Moscovici was quite right when he explained in its preface that they will need to do much more to ultimately ensure that the general European interest prevails and which is, "not necessarily and even quite rarely, the sum total of national and essentially diverging interests". He is actually quite right but did he really think the same thing when he was the French Minister for Finance? There is no easy answer to that question…
Michel Theys
*** ZAFIRIS TZANNATOS: La Grèce des mémorandums 2010-2012. Les chiffres, le programme et l'expérience internationale depuis 1980. Editions Gutemberg (37 rue Didotou, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3642003 - fax: 3642030 - Email: info@dardanosnet.gr). 2016, 248 pp. €10. ISBN 978-960-011-768-4.
The simple examination of the financial results and trends registered in Greece since 2010 lead to the conclusion, without even taking into account the institutional shortcomings and dysfunctional state of the country, that the hypothesis and expectations underpinning the memoranda were fallacious. This is what the international experience can teach us. Taking this into account would have allowed Greece but also all of Europe to be in a much healthier position. According to the author, a Professor of economics at the American University of Beirut and an adviser to the World Bank and International Labor Organisation, the memoranda have been incorrectly based on the conviction that Greece suffered from an occasional problem of liquidity, when in fact the country was actually insolvent. There have been numerous measures aimed at "curing" the patient but these have been introduced sporadically in the absence of a coherent development strategy, which quickly led to excessive austerity and the accompanying social implications. Following the description of the historic context, Zafiris Tzannatos analyses the causes of the Greek crisis in light of the lessons to be drawn from international experience in the public debt arena. He also analyses the specific data relevant to the Greek economy, such as the size of the public sector, before presenting a detailed breakdown of the different adjustment program stages, namely Memorandum I (May 2010-July 2011), Memorandum (July-October 2011) and the revised Memorandum II (October 2011-May 2012). Throughout the book, the author asks a number of key questions and provides the relevant answers to them: should reducing the deficit be obtained by reducing expenses or by increasing taxes? Should pensions have been taken into account as a way of reducing poverty? Has the underground economy been taken into account correctly? Has the social dialogue been neglected? Is Greece a high labour cost economy or rather a high cost economy? The analysis and conclusions made by the author leads to the formulation of a number of alternative policies that could subsequently put a stop to the current crisis in Europe and Greece. The book has the added advantage of an extensive bibliography, diagrams, tables and statistical annexes.
(AKa)
*** Politique. Revue de débats. ASBL Politique (9 rue du Faucon, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5386996 - Email: secretariat@politique.eu.org - Internet: http://politique.eu.org ). May/June 2016, No. 95, 84 pp. €9: Subscription €40.
This issue of the progressive French-speaking Belgian Journal looks at the consequences of the attacks in Paris and Brussels and points out that racism and Islamophobia do not help solve the problem at all because the real enemies are those that really profit from the situation and are "only 1% of society". There is a very comprehensive feature article on the "huge changes in information in the digital age". Two sociologists also examine what lies below the "collaborative" economy. There is also a scathing analysis of the way in which the European Bank attacks human rights.
(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 2016, No. 172, 40p., €8. Annual subscription: €30.
In this issue of the combative French federalist journal, particular attention focuses on Brexit and its consequences. In the editorial, following on from Cohn-Bendit, this sad event is explained as paradoxically having the advantage of revealing the "contradictions of popularism" and in which Jean-Pierre Gouzy interprets as a "practical joke" this should help shake "the supporters of a federal Europe" out of their torpor. The language question is also the subject of a number of contributions, as well as a significant number of other issues.
(MT)
The next issue of the European Library, No. 1149, will be published on Tuesday, 6 September.