*** NATHALIE BRACK: Opposing Europe in the European Parliament. Rebels and Radicals in the Chamber. Palgrave Macmillan (Springer Nature, P. O. Box 105280, D-69042 Heidelberg. Tel: (49-6221) 345-4301 – Email: customerservice@springer.com – Internet: http://www.springernature.com ). “Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics” series. 2018, 213 pp. €20. ISBN 978-1-137-60199-5.
The paradox is such that for a long time, the voice of the Eurosceptics has mainly had a hearing within the very entity of which they themselves reprove. This is now less the case because the Parliaments in the member states of the European Union that do not have the populists, nationalists and extremists who are determined to attack “the Europe of Brussels”, are rare. This does not mean, however, that the presence of MEPs hostile to the Union and their activities at the premises of the European Parliament have not, for a long time, required closer scrutiny. This is undertaken, in this case, by the political scientist Nathalie Brack who provides her doctoral thesis on the subject and which is analysed in this article.
In 2015, this study received the Xavier Mabille Prize for “best thesis in political science”. Reading the study reveals the appropriateness of the choice made insofar as in it the author demonstrates and explains with great clarity and precision the way in which the Eurosceptics, once they are elected to the European Parliament, conceive of and exercise their mandate. More specifically, the author, now a senior lecturer at the University of Brussels Centre of Political Life, manages to demonstrate how this constantly increasing number of Eurosceptics (the forthcoming European elections are not expected to change this situation) deal with the tension created between the platform upon which they have been elected and the tasks and expectations they have to tackle as… European delegates. The attitude of the European Parliament in confronting this “foreign body” is also meticulously examined.
Nathalie Brack based her study on more than one hundred interviews with Eurosceptic MEPs and their assistants, as well as with European Parliament officials. Over a period of two years, she also meticulously analysed the content of their Parliamentary questions as well as their behaviour during the votes, in an effort to more effectively identify their profile - and their differences. She argues that it is fundamental that Euroscepticism must be understood, “not as an opposition to European policies but as a systemic opposition to European integration and its results”.
Her work, however, clarifies to what extent the anti-European front has fractured. Therefore, one of the first things the author does is to outline a typology of these kind of actors: one of them, therefore is identified as the “Absentee”, namely, the parliamentarian whose investment in Brussels and Strasbourg is characterised more by a preference for the local or national terrain rather than their European mandate; there is also the “Public Orator”, who uses his or her presence of the European Parliament to, “denounce and delegitimise the EU from the inside” and whose objective is “being present in the heart of the system to denounce it with no desire to reform it”; there is also the “Pragmatist”, who seek to fulfil their role as a member of the European Parliament, without renouncing their Eurosceptic convictions and, finally, the “Participant”, who see themselves more as a legislator than opponent.
This diverse profile subsequently encourages the author to examine the way in which the institutional context (rules of procedure, time allocated for speaking) influences the behaviour of the Eurosceptic MEPs. She then looks at the ramifications of their presence of the European Parliament itself. Her conclusions in this connection are as unexpected as they are invigorating given that, in her eyes, “the presence and strategies of Eurosceptic MEPs help to increase the EP's representativeness as an institution open to society in its diversity”. The author also sees this as a way of contributing to the politicisation of the Union and encouraging the supporters of European integration to no longer content themselves with a reduced parliamentary democracy to the advantage of the main political parties. All of a sudden, we find ourselves asking whether the Eurosceptics have ultimately become the saviours of the revived European project?
Michel Theys
*** CHRISTOS FRANGONIKOLOPOULOS: L’Union européenne. Le défi inévitable de la légitimité démocratique. Editions Epikentro (9 rue Kamvounion, GR-54621 Salonika. Tel: (30-231) 0256146 – fax: 0256148 – Email: http://www.epikentro.gr ). 2018, 200 pp. €11. ISBN 978-960-458-775-9.
The premise of this Associate Professor in international relations at the department of journalism and media at the Aristotle University of Salonika is based on the observation that there has been an excessive display of optimism with regard to the subject of the “end of history”. Those, like him, who have studied and analysed the European Union have glorified the promise that economic liberalism and the expansion of supranational decision-making structures would bring greater prosperity to all and resolve global problems. Today, they are now both surprised and disarmed by the anti-European reactions expressed by the different peoples of Europe who feel that they have been forgotten about in this adventure. This does not mean that greater integration is not required but the author of this essay argues that it is perhaps desirable that the European Union takes stock and looks at the way in which a more comprehensive dialogue could be encouraged before beginning the next steps of this integration. Taking stock, would, in any case, consolidate the fundamentals of the processes upon which European integration are based…At the beginning of the book, the author raises the following question in a rather brutal way, “In what way is the European Union democratic?” It provides an answer to this question in the four chapters of the book. First of all he analyses the incessant debate about the Union’s democratic legitimacy. He then looks at the crisis of the euro and the subsequent “euro-negationism”. In the third chapter he looks at different ways the Union can succeed, with the last chapter focusing on the debate on possible ways forward. A selective bibliography, index of names and lexicon of different terms is also included in the book. (AKa)
*** Il Federalista. Rivista di politica. Edif (8 Villa Glori, I-27100 Pavia. Internet: http://www.ilfederalista.eu ). 2017, No. 3, 76 pp. Annual subscription: €25 (Europe), €30 (abroad).
This edition of the publication by the Movimento Federalista Europeo is entirely devoted to providing a homage to its founder, Mario Albertini. On the basis of a colloquy organised by the Albertini Foundation at the University of Pavia, six contributions highlight the action and theoretical and political contribution made by this friend and accomplice of Altiero Spinelli to the federalist cause. To the inheritors of this professor who died 20 years ago, it is particularly crucial that his ideas are given reflection at a time that Europe is “on the receiving end of popularist winds, riven with fear and temptations of the nationalist past”, which is significantly undermining the European Union. This explains the importance of (re)-discovering, thanks to the clarification provided by Professor Battegazzorre (political science at the University of Pavia, where Albertini himself taught for a long time), how this theoretician of federalism demystified the nation state and the very idea of the nation. This publication will help to convince the supporters of Albertini that the only way of making European construction secure is to, “put the political vision back at the centre of its project by developing the current system of European governance based on the rules towards developing genuine political government”. (MT)
*** SOTIRIS DALLIS: L'Europe « difficile ». A la recherche de la nouvelle solidarité européenne. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2018, 162 pp. €9.54. ISBN 978-960-02-3319-3.
European integration has until now confirmed its value by being able to meet the challenges of history. At the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Rome treaties, the member states are now imperatively obliged to promote a positive vision of the European Union as a sort of opportunity and protection against any impending threats. Today, they need to convince themselves, more than ever before, that unity is required and a struggle in this connection that should be continued with determination. This is the conviction demonstrated by Professor Sotiris Dalis (International relations and Mediterranean studies at the University of the Aegean) for whom, “if we really want to continue to work in the same direction of cooperation and coexistence as defined in the preamble to the 1951 treaty on the European Community of Coal and Steel, we have to continue or recommence the way in which we consider European unification as a specific utopia and new European solidarity of interests that will complete the national interest because we are Europeans and we will be even more European in the future!”. This is what he attempts to highlight in this essay, which seeks to provide a contribution to a new and crucial debate on the… reawakening of Europe. This will be about reawakening, relinquishing the lethargy in which it has fallen over recent years and which allowed for extremist ethno-secular and euro-defensive forces to assert themselves to a certain extent in their toxic programmes. If the question to be posed is how can “the European Union survive until the end of 2018”, all the reasons for finding an acceptable exit strategy to this existential crisis are accumulating as well, which leads the author to think that common sense will indeed prevail in the end… (AKa)
*** STAVROS PAPAGIANNEAS: Rebranding Europe. Fundamentals for Leadership Communication. Editions Academic and Scientific Publishers (34 Keizerslaan, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2892656 – Internet: http://www.aspeditions.be ). 2017, 176 p.. ISBN 978-90-5718-620-2.
“Europe has done everything to make itself unpopular”. By making this diagnosis “at a critical moment for the European project”, the author of this book identifies the areas where the European Union has done badly or is expected to do so: its responsibility in the “European identity crisis” transcends all other crises (migration, economic, Brexit). Without fear of passing political judgment on the action taken by the Union, Stavros Papagianneas is particularly interested in analysing how the decisions, attitude and contradictions of the European institutions have watered down the very essence of the Community project in the eyes of its citizens. If there is a single moment in this collapse, the Union's descent into hell probably began in 2008 when it proved incapable of honouring one of its fundamental promises: ensuring prosperity. Since then, the European social model has been crushed under the weight of austerity and neoliberal inspired reforms, according to the expert who has been, “disappointed by the way in which the Union dealt with the Greek debt crisis”. Moreover, the former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors warned that, “if European policies endanger cohesion and social standards, the European project has no chance of rallying support from European citizens”. The European brand has subsequently undergone some severe blows, particularly with the revolving door tradition of senior officials, the division between the member states on the migration question and Brexit.
This chronology of European misfortune, which constitutes the first part of the book, will not teach those who follow current affairs and developments in the Union, anything new. In its trial alone, Europe has even failed to have its appeal heard. This former head of communications at the Commission and press attaché at different diplomatic missions in Brussels experienced the breakdown in European communications at first hand. His analysis is further bolstered by the opinions of different actors and opinion leaders in this domain. The observation made is undeniable: with its slow, obsolete, disembodied, inaudible and complicated communications, the Union has been unable to efficiently combat Brussels bashing, misleading, extremist or populist fabrications or even those used in the referendum that produced Brexit. Nonetheless, not everything is lost, yet. In the second part of the book which is more substantial, Stavros Papagianneas has developed many different ways to recreate the link between the European institutions and citizens, a link that particularly exists in the creation of transparency and honesty, the implementation of a clear innovative and creative communication strategy, the intelligent use of social media, coherent messaging and, last but not least, the use of media worthy of the name in the four corners of the Union. All the solutions appear obvious, banal or indeed naive but as long as they are not put into practice, they have to be repeated. (MU)
*** PANAGIOTIS IOAKIMIDIS: La crise, l’Europe et la gauche. La nature et la résolution de la crise, Syriza en Europe, la gauche européenne et la social-démocratie. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – fax: 3809020 – Email papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2017, 156 pp. €9.50. ISBN 978-960-02-3201-1.
The fact that Greece, Europe and the left have been in crisis over the past few years cannot be denied by anyone. These three crises are in dialectical osmosis insofar as each of them impacts and fosters the other, even if each of them has its own specific origins. In this short book, divided into four sections, Panagiotis Ioakimidis, Emeritus Professor of European studies at the University of Athens and former ambassador- advisor to the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, seeks to go back to the roots of these crises and provide a critical analysis of them. In the first, he analyses the nature, identity and characteristics of the European crisis in all its different aspects (political, institutional, economic, constitutional, etc.), as well as all the many challenges facing the European Union in its external environment (Russia, Middle East, the rise of Isis, etc.). In it he also examines the nature, characteristics and specificity of the Greek crisis. The second part of the book provides a methodological analysis and evaluation of the action taken by the coalition government currently in power in Greece, particularly in light of the negotiations with the European Union and their multifaceted ramifications. The third section attacks the question of the modern European left and social democracy, in the context of the crisis in which they find themselves and the ideological references and challenges confronting them in a globalised environment. In the fourth section, the author examines the conditions in which the crisis in Greece can be overcome. (AKa)