*** Revue de l’Union européenne. Editions Dalloz (80 av. de la Marne, F-92541 Montrouge cedex. Tel: (33-820) 800017 – Fax: (33-1) 41484792 – Email: ventes@dalloz.fr – Internet: http://www.dalloz-revues.fr ). December 2017, No. 613, 62 pp, €36.76. Annual subscription: €326,72 € (France), €345.10 (European Union).
This issue of a French legal review which is authoritative in the European Union is remarkable on two counts. Opening with an editorial devoted to the possible and necessary emergence in the European Union of the fundamental right to whistle-blow, it contains two special reports which go back to basics. The first is on ‘values,’ a concept with which so many European leaders like to gargle. The contributors brought together in these pages usefully put things in their proper order by calling for the greatest humility. The second naturally fell to this publication which, before it was called ‘ ‘Revue de l’Union européenne,’ had the name ‘Revue du marché commun et de l’union européenne’ and even, at the entry into force of the Rome Treaties, ‘Revue du marché commun’: what better medium than this long-running legal review for learning lessons from the raft of anniversaries for which the European construction is the pretext?
Let us begin with ‘European values’ which, as all the experts from academia brought together in these pages agree, are experiencing a ‘real crisis.’ It is clear, explains Sylvie Torcol, senior lecturer in public law at Toulon University, that there is a ‘worrying gap between talk about values and the action of the Union and its member states, especially in periods of crisis, and inability to make these values respected.’ She says there is not really any reason to be surprised at this, in that these values have been discussed from the start less as ‘ideals to be defended’ than as ‘economic values,’ the concept of solidarity also being ‘mostly associated with the economy.’ No surprise, therefore, that the three contributors to the special report on the jurisdictionising of values relate to this disillusioned comment by Sylvie Torcol: ‘In the European Union, values are affirmed, raised, demanded and non-negotiable… and yet all the same they are evanescent, incantational, inaudible; they are never set as a forerunner to reforms because they are considered as already acquired and are therefore deleted by economic arguments or by crises such as the refugee crisis.’
Prof. Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3) thus denounces a Europe without humanity, without solidarity, without rationality in terms of the way it deals with the refugee crisis, going so far as to make this direct judgement: ‘Study of European prose and national measures reveals a Europe and States without merits, without the desire to demonstrate humanity, solidarity, rationality (…) at the risk of undermining the very principles on which they are based, at the cost of disintegrating their identity as societies of law.’ This is where we stand today, and the fate reserved in practice in the Union for solidarity is barely any more comforting, which is why Delphine Espagno-Abadie (Sciences Po Toulouse, Laboratoire des sciences sociales du politique) calls for ‘solidarity to be made a real source of constitutionality.’ This point of view is extended by Prof. Gaëlle Marti (Université de Lyon 3), who notes an autonomisation of common values calling for the emergence of a constitutional approach, since ‘only the people’ – the people of a European federation – ‘holders of constituent power, should be able to enact the common values they share and establish the institutions called upon to incarnate them, through the adoption of a Constitution, understood as the legal order’s fundamental and supreme law.’ The question that is raised is how much longer the European people(s) will remain gagged...
The special report on European anniversaries is equally instructive. Alongside very useful explanations on the ‘Treaties of Rome in their time,’ – in which historian Martial Libera (University of Strasbourg) points out that the French government jeopardised the launch of the Common Market by demanding ‘prior social harmonisation from above,’ something that resonates with the current problem of seconded (posted) workers –, on the general economics of territorial application of Community law and the fate reserved for overseas countries and territories and outermost regions, three discussions in particular stand out. The first is by Prof. Denys Simon (Ecole de droit de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon), who lucidly reassesses the importance of each of the treaties, his prime merit being to point out that the Schuman Declaration and the Paris Treaty that gave birth to the European Community are the only real founding acts. Since the Treaties of Rome that had the advantage of rising above ‘negative integration through the introduction of common policies and the longer-term prospect of an ever-closer union,’ the time of ‘cosmetic restoration of the façade’ prevailed most of the time, the anniversary of the Nice Treaty not even deserving, in this connection, to be called a festival, while the Lisbon Treaty was more about the ‘return of States’ and the reappearance of the technique of compromises’ than ‘any significant advance that would deserve to be celebrated.’ According to this lawyer, following the movements of turning in on national sovereignty and the slippages that some member states dare to make with regard to the European Union’s fundamental values, ‘it is undeniable that a ‘refoundation’ is probably indispensable.’ In addition, Prof. Jacques Ziller (Pavia University) shows how moving from signature to ratification of European integration treaties has always been difficult, and Vanessa Barbé (Université d’Orléans) considers ‘belonging to a united Europe of a Brexit Treaty of Rome,’ which brings a wholly remarkable special report – and issue - to their close.
Michel Theys
*** STEPHANOS GIALAMAS (Ed.): Propositions de leadership pour la sortie de la crise. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – Fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). Series ‘Politique internationale et européenne.’ 2017, 296 pp, €15. ISBN 978-960-02-3277-6.
Much has been written about the current crisis, but what crisis are people talking about? An economic, political and/or social crisis, or a much deeper crisis of conscience and values? What meaning should be given to the term at the end of the day? In a time of permanent challenges and ambient pessimism, the leadership can reverse the meaning and the trend. This collective work looks precisely at leadership in the domains of politics, culture, education and the environment, with the analysis being simultaneously economic, political and psychological. Headed by Stephanos Gialamas, professor of comparative economics at the Athens Business University, five authors, each a specialist in his own sector (politics, education, sustainable development and psychology), carry out an assessment before suggesting solutions to help a leadership to emerge that combines programmes, inspiration and vision. They propose a veritable spa treatment with the aim, they say, to claim to be no more than offering temporary respite care. (AKa)
*** THEODOROS PANGALOS: Le glossaire de la galipette. 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.’ 2017, 212 p[, €8.50. ISBN 978-960-16-7205-2.
Theodoros Pangalos was MP for more than thirty-five years from 1981 to 2009. Several times a minister and twice even deputy prime minister, journalists remember him as a brilliant mind, but caustic and deliberately cynical. He continues to be so in this book, in which he analyses some words that have marked daily life, bringing him to express himself (and scratch a little at) ‘Americans,’ ‘economic assessments,’ ‘Papademos’ who was interim prime minister between 2012 and 2013. The ‘junta’ of the colonels is another term dissected with brio by Theodoros Pangalos, his comments leading him to reveal the ways jt was tempted to ‘create and implement a national socialist ideology’ and lift a few lids off the country’s fermenting ‘ideological and anachronistic trash cans.’ His aim with this book, explains the author, was to ‘clarify a series of concepts used shamelessly by the political leaders of the country’s government in order to be able to dominate citizen’s minds,’ by which he wishes to explain that the rotten apples of yesterday are virtual choirboys compared with those in power today. Among other words that tickle Théodoros Pangalos’ causticism are renaissance, dignity, absolutism, unforeseeable, issue, negotiations, permanent revolution, diversity and institutions. This glossary shows that Pangalos remains a brilliant mind that is caustic verging on cynical. (AKa)
*** KATERINA NASSIOKA, JOHN HOLLOWAY (Eds.): Au-delà de la crise. Quoi après l'effondrement de l'espoir institutionnel ? Editions Futura (72 rue Charilaou Trikoupi, GR-10680 Athens. Tel:(0030)2105226361- Fax:2105226361– Email: futura@otenet.gr – Internet: https://futurabooks.wordpress.com ). 2017, 282 pp, €16.96. ISBN 978-960-9489-70-6.
The dozen or so authors brought together in this book by sociologist Katerina Nassioka (Pantheon University) and economist John Holloway (Benemenita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla in Mexico) discuss ‘hope,’ in terms of ‘that which is to come’ but which for the moment ‘has gone a long way away’: ‘leaving in it wake disappointment, frustration and depression. The crisis is here. Storms are here. And these storms are too powerful.’ So what can we do? Is hope too far off in practice or just an illusion cultivated by the Left? Rather than simply accepting depression, isn’t the challenge now to think beyond the crisis, to rise above rage, pain, bitterness and illusions and learn lessons from the experience of recent years? The way the authors see it, Greece has been no less than a laboratory for the whole world: the painful and violent attacks it has suffered due to the debt are a perfectly tragic example of a generalised conflict, which will risk being exacerbated while capital continues to be a dominant form of the organisation of society. ‘Thinking beyond the crisis means getting out of the paralysis caused by the image of the crisis as a ‘biblical catastrophe’ dictated by the ‘divine’ rulings of the financial markets and their representatives. This means that we must understand the crisis not as an ‘apocalyptic’ event, but as a historical fact’ that is by nature surmountable if we take the trouble to do so: this is the activist viewpoint defended in the book. (AKa)
*** MARIA KOMNINOU (Ed.): La sphère publique en crise. Comment et pourquoi la déontologie est violée dans les médias (2009-2016). Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – Fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2017, 256 pp, €19.08. ISBN 978-960-02-3318-6.
Carried out over three years by the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Media at Athens University under the leadership of Prof. Maria Komninou, this study explores the field of communication in Greece during the crisis, seeing to find out whether and how the crisis encouraged specific cases of violations of ethics and deontology in the media. The answer is a clear yes and the authors show how the public sphere has become polluted by ever more serious and frequent violations. A ‘keyhole’ type of journalism developed that has taken disgusting pleasure in treating HIV-positive women, refugees, migrants and antifascists with contempt. Sponsored by Michalis Stathopoulos, former minister of justice and former rector of Athens University, the research team wanted to contribute to both research and education alike. The research makes a detailed analysis of four cases: i) the scandal of HIV-positive women in the media; ii) the coverage of the work of Golden Dawn in the media, the Greek far right party – an openly Nazi party – before and after the assassination of Pavlos Fyssas, an activist and singer in an anti-racist rap band; iii) the trial of Golden Dawn; iv) the agreement reached between the European Union and Turkey to stem the flow of refugees, this subject being chosen to investigate the establishment of racist stereotypes. Prof. Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock contributes by raising the wider question of racism, its origins and mutations. An illusion-free examination is made in the book of the random results achieved by the National Council for Broadcasting in imposing respect of ethics and deontology in these media, along with those achieved by NGOs working in this domain in Athens and Thessalonica. (AKa)
*** Il Federalista. Rivista di politica. Edif (8 Villa Glori, I-27100 Pavia. Internet: http://www.ilfederalista.eu ). 2017, No. 2, 92 p.p Annual subscription €25 (Europe), €30 (elsewhere).
This issue of the publication connected with the Movimento Federalista Europeo focusses on the speech at the Sorbonne by President Macron and the last State of the Union speech by Jean-Claude Juncker. The editorial is devoted to the first speech, which is enthusiastically and optimistically welcomed, even though there is no doubt that the ‘sirens of preservation of sovereignty and Community continuity’ can already be heard. Similar caution from Paolo Ponzano, who welcomes the European Commission’s presidents idea’s under the unambiguous title ‘New ambitions and old problems,’ in which this institutional expert says that decisive progress calls for a review of the treaties. Banking Union is another topic addressed in this issue. (MT)