*** CONSTANCE CHEVALLIER-GOVERS: De la coopération à l'intégration policière dans l'Union européenne. Etablissements Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Bruxelles. Tel: (32-2) 5129845). 1999, 450 pages, FEB 3,200. ISBN 2-8027-1226-8.
"Police integration, namely the creation of a European police force, must (…) be considered as the only possible solution for the future". Such an assertion cannot but warm the hearts of those actors or observers who are dissatisfied with the slow progress that has been made since the 1960s in the area of police cooperation. It has all the more impact as the conclusion of strict and scientific reasoning that makes this work a masterly and credible plea and, as Professor Mario Bettati (University Paris II Panthéon-Assas) observes in his preface, a genuine "handbook for decision makers".
Doctor of public law and Lecturer at the St. Maur Law Faculty at Paris-Val de Marne University, the author proceeds in three stages or, rather, in a three-stage crescendo. In Part One, Constance Chevallier-Govers documents the fact that the will to cooperate in the European area is not a recent idea. First, because crime has long disregarded borders and there has been a need, somehow, (and on the basis of cooperation on the ground), to take account of this obvious fact that was seen as damaging to the principle of absolute sovereignty. Second, because the creation of a market without frontiers widened the gap, which the mafia and other delinquents rushed to fill, leading Member States, or at least the bodies charged with internal security, to develop pragmatic cooperation. The problem is that this "spontaneous cooperation" has developed anarchistically and, to some extent, hypocritically. If the author entitles part two "The Shortcomings of Police Cooperation", it is because Member States have continued to give precedence to a strictly intergovernmental approach, which saves appearances as far as sovereignty is concerned, but is not highly effective. They have notably approved the introduction of bodies "specialised in a single sector, which has added to the proliferation of cooperation structures" which, over time, have had a tendency to create "overlapping competences". The Maastricht Treaty doubtless tried to clarify things, but the author demonstrates that it was not more successful than the Treaty of Amsterdam in going beyond limits and shortcomings linked to the "very technique of intergovernmental cooperation in police matters". We thus come to the "challenge of police integration", the subject of Part Three. For Mrs Chevallier-Govers, whatever some may say, this challenge has already reached the stage in which Member States are meeting it. Not always well, but meeting it nonetheless. At present, some governments still think Europol "must serve solely to improve cooperation by different police forces", while others are of the view that it "must become an integrated European police force". These differences of view have led them to proceed by stages: today, they are in the stage of cooperation within the framework of Europol, that remains the plaything of national police forces but nevertheless constitutes the "first step towards police integration". The stage of formal integration will come later, as necessity knows no law. We'd like to believe it.
Michel Theys
*** JEAN-MARIE BOCKEL: Schengen: quel bilan pour la coopération transfrontalière? Assemblée nationale (Kiosque de l'Assemblée nationale, 4 rue Aristide-Briand, 75007 Paris. http: // http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). Rapport d'information No 1690. 1999, 124 pages, FRF 40, EUR 6.10. ISBN 2-11-108541-3.
A member of the French National Assembly's European Union Delegation, Jean-Marie Bockel takes stock in this very comprehensive report of the reality and efficacy of cross-border cooperation (between police, customs, judges, etc.) implemented when controls at internal frontiers were abolished in the Schengen area, on 26 March 1995. He observes that the Convention contributed to the establishment of new types of controls to combat irregular immigration (although staff members are too often absent from the field in certain regions, absorbed by administrative tasks) and that it has given rise to new forms of coordination and complementarity in fighting delinquency and crime, especially by speeding up information sharing by police forces. On the other hand, procedures for cross-border observation and pursuit are used little and the author recommends that the conditions for exercising these rights should be simplified and expanded so that police and judges can make use of them more frequently. Numerous possibilities can be explored, he explains, to ensure that progress in police cooperation will not be offset by the difficulties of judicial cooperation.
(MT)
*** ALAIN BARRAU: Vers un espace judiciaire européen. Les enjeux du Conseil européen extraordinaire de Tampere. Assemblée nationale (see above). Rapport d'information No 1838. 1999, 68 pages, FRF 20, EUR 3.05. ISBN 2-11-108380-1.
Chair of the French National Assembly's European Union Delegation, Alain Barrau brings to light in this report the achievements and shortcomings of civil and criminal judicial cooperation in the Union. He observes that while the Treaty of Maastricht was a step in the right direction, "the process of intergovernmental decision has nevertheless demonstrated its limits". Since then, the Treaty of Amsterdam has improved things considerably, civil judicial cooperation now coming under the first pillar while criminal judicial cooperation, as part of the third pillar, benefits from legal instruments which "mark a shift in the intergovernmental logic regulating this matter". Notably in the light of the prospects traced by the Fifteen at the special summit in Tampere, Mr Barrau argues very eloquently for strengthened cooperation in these areas. "When our fellow citizens are able to assess in their daily life the progress made on enforcement of judicial decisions, when the application of divorce decisions for bi-national European couples no longer runs into insurmountable obstacles, when crime no longer finds a refuge in the complexities of cross-border procedures, the European cause will have scored points in the public opinion", he concludes.
(MT)
*** JEAN PRADEL, GEERT CORSTENS: Droit pénal européen. Dalloz (31-35 rue Froidevaux, F-75685 Paris Cedex 14. Distribution in Benelux: Patrimoine, 168 rue du Noyer, B-1030 Bruxelles. Tel/fax: (32-2) 7366847, Patrimoine@netsgo.be). 1999, 570 pages, FEB 1,686. ISBN 2-24-703495-0.
Former Judge Jean Pradel is a professor at the University of Poitiers and chairs the Association française du droit pénal; Geert Corstens is adviser to the Netherlands Court of Appeal and a member of the editorial staff of Nederlands Juristenblad. They have put together a handbook on the emergence of a corpus of European penal law, shaped by the Council of Europe, the EU and in the framework -now under the Community sphere- of the Schengen area. They distinguish and review in detail three masses: criminal cooperation between state judicial systems and police; human rights; Community law which, without in principle entailing a penal aspect, comprises considerable effects of a penal nature. In their introduction, Pradel and Corstens wonder whether European penal law corresponds to a necessity. They observe that "the peoples making up Europe experience European integration as undermining their own culture" and that the first obstacle to the development of a corpus of European criminal law is therefore the "idea of a nation or the very strong and very legitimate idea of a Europe of nations". Fortunately, this debatable point of view is counterbalanced straight away by recognition that "a European corpus of penal law, limited essentially to an ideal of harmonisation, corresponds to an imperious necessity" and that "it is at regional level that fighting crime has the best chances of being effective". Let's face it, if security is provided by the Union and not strictly at national level, this is hardly likely to make citizens indignant...
(MT)
*** Dictionnaire permanent droit des étrangers. Editions Législatives (80 av. de la Marne, 92546 Montrouge cedex. Tel: (33-1) 40923636, fax: 46560015, el@editions-legislatives.fr, http: //http://www.editions-legislatives.fr ). Bulletin No 61. 1999, 24 pages.
This special issue (which adds 24 pages to the basic collection) is devoted in full to the Treaty of Amsterdam and the law relating to foreign nationals, presenting highly relevant texts on asylum, police and judicial cooperation on criminal matters, external border controls, fundamental rights, immigration, visas, the integration of Schengen, and so on. The Dictionnaire also includes a glossary.
(MT)
*** STÉPHANE LECLERC, JEAN-FRANÇOIS AKANDJI-KOMBÉ, MARIE-JOËLLE REDOR, Eds.: L'Union européenne et les droits fondamentaux. Etablissements Emile Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels, Tel: (32-2) 5129845, fax: 5117202, Bruylant@pophost.eunet.be, http: //http://www.bruylant.be ). 1999, 235 pages, FEB 1,950. ISBN 2-8027-1255-1.
This collective work reproduces the papers presented at a workshop on the EU and the defence of fundamental rights, sponsored jointly in May 1998 by the University of Caen, the Centre de recherche sur les droits fondamentaux (CRDF) and the Commission pour l'étude des Communautés européennes (CEDECE). Opening with an introduction tracing the development and limits of the gradual integration of human rights into Community case law, the contributors go on to address problems concerning conflicts between Community law and national law, judicial guarantees of fundamental rights in the EU, the scope of the European Convention on Human Rights, the protection of third-country nationals under the Community legal order and equality of treatment for women and men in the EU. An index of Court of Justice and Court of First Instance decisions, opinions and orders completes this work, meant primarily for legal practitioners.
(ED)
*** FRANCIS MESSNER, Ed.: Les "sectes" et le droit en France. PUF (108 bld Saint-Germain, F-75006 Paris). "Politique d'aujourd'hui" series. 1999, 344 pages, FRF 149. ISBN 2-13-050143-5.
At first glance, this work gives the impression that it is targeted solely at legal experts from France, which is in fact more or less the case. The result of a colloquium sponsored in June 1997 by the CNRS Centre Société, Droit et Religion en Europe based at Robert Schuman University and the Strasbourg-based Institute of Canon Law, it presents an exhaustive inventory of how "sects" are apprehended by different branches of law: international, constitutional, administrative, local Alsace-Moselle law, criminal, fiscal, social, family, labour and association law... But this is not the only important contribution the work makes to reflection on this highly sensitive subject. Via law, the authors review a societal problem that is at once historical and contemporary. Not all the papers are by lawyers; sociologists make their contribution as well, thus enlarging the scope of potential readership. Jean-Paul Willaime, of the Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, examines whether France (But can Community Europe as a whole be kept out of such reflection?) is seeking to adopt a "religiously correct" attitude. After all, just what is a "sect"? History at the very least teaches extreme caution ("They lie in the name of God; they violate laws in the name of God; they commit fraud in the name of God; they would kill in the name of God without the slightest scruples", stated a Lausanne newspaper in 1883 in reference to the "sect" known as the "Salvation Army"). In short, one "sect" can hide another or, rather, can represent another organisation hunting on the same grounds, spiritual though they may be.
Willaime goes on to explain that for the sociologist (unlike the politician and even more so, the vox populi), the sect is more a concept than a reality and that, though it may not please some, "the logic of sects pervades all religious tradition which, in the name of the absolute, can be radicalised by accentuating the break with society and the enlistment of individuals in its universe". Consequently, one of the questions that should arise in connection with the emergence of non-conformist spiritual movements and the reactions they provoke among political officials is whether a "new movement of spiritualisation of the secular" may be succeeding the secularisation of religion that has marked recent history. Willaime observes that "in Western societies, it is more often the State than the Catholic Church that denounces sects" today, insofar as "sects" are seen less as "illegitimate competitors of the Church" than as "competitors of society, alternatives to society". Clearly, "it is not so much religious non-conformism that is being denounced, but rather social non-conformism linked to a strong religious commitment".
All of these reflections represent an adequate background for a needed legal and political examination, that should lead, explains Francis Messner in his preface, to the establishment of "mechanisms for attaining church status", which "will constitute a major challenge of religious policy in the coming years in France and more generally in the European area".
(MT)
*** Convergences et divergences dans l'Europe sociale. "Emploi, retraite, santé". Europe & Entreprises (7 Square Gabriel Fauré, F-75017 Paris - Tel.: (33-1) 43800125 - Fax: 43803910 - E-mail: team@europe-entreprises.com). 1999, 21 p..
This publication gives an account of a conference organised in Strasbourg on 26 October 1999 by the "Association Europe & Entreprises" on the theme of a social Europe in the context of the changes taking place within the EU. The seminar was based on three round tables, the first devoted to employment in Europe, the second to retirement and the third to health.
*** Education for 2020. Published by AEGEE-Europe (Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe, PO Box 72, B-1040 Bruxelles - Tel.: (32-2) 2452300 - Fax: 2456260 - E-mail: headoffice@aegee.org - Internet: http: //http://www.aegee.org ). 1999, 18 p..
This brochure refers to a conference held on the premises of the European Parliament, that the AEGEE devoted, on 26 March 1999, to the theme "Education for 2020". Students taking part put their case in favour of a system allowing for the training of European decision-makers. They conjured up a system that combines transparency and flexibility, where each student may determine his/her own course of study thanks to geographical or virtual (via Internet) mobility, in a Europe where university education has a broad common denominator.
*** Internationale de l'Education. Published by Internationale de l'Education (5 bd du Roi Albert II, B-1210 Bruxelles - Tel.: (32-2) 2240611 - Fax: 2240606 - E-mail: educint@ei-ie.org - Internet: http: //http://www.ei-ie.org ). Janvier 2000, 32 p.. Quarterly publication in English, Spanish and French.
To summarise: a study devoted to "Manifesto 2000" describing the six fundamental principles that underpin a culture of peace. It also contains articles on the launching of a world action campaign for weloming children in schools, without discrimination; the agony of educational services in Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, and the assistance that may be given to them; advanced education and research; developments in adult education; child labour in the Russian federation; and the educational system in New Zealand.
*** Revue internationale du travail. International Labour Office (CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland - Tel.: (41-22) 7996510 or 7997903 - Fax: 7996117 or 7988685 - E-mail: revue@ilo.org). N° 3/1999, 141 p..
This third, and special, edition for the year 1999 is on "women, gender and labour". The articles of the review mainly consider an approach to equality based on ability, positive action against discrimination based on race or gender, the situation of women and men in labour statistics, the debate on unpaid work, the behavioural norms for men and women and the economic impact on family and social responsibiltiies.
*** EURYDICE (education information network in Europe, 15 rue d'Arlon, B-1050 Brussels - Tel.: (32-2) 2383011 - Fax: 2306562 - E-mail: eurydice.uee@euronet.be) has brought out a CD-Rom which,
entitled "information network for education in Europe", proposes an overview of the European educational systems. This CD-Rom has many advantages: it presents the Eurydice network and its activities in eleven languages; it includes Eurybase, a detailed database on the different educational systems in Europe; and ten studies published by Eurydice between 1994 and 1999, as well as thirty comparative statistical pointers to education in the EU.
Reviews on social issues and education. Briefly.
*** Travail. International Labour Office (Geneva). In the summary: of No 31 (32 p.): a study by the ILO on labour developments worldwide, the difficulties of the labour market in Latin America and the Caribbean, child labour in Argentina, micro-loans in Western Africa for combating the uncertain situation, and discrimination based on gender in Estonia. *** World Trade Union. International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (Brussels). In the summary: of No 10 (36 p.): a dossier on the evolution of trade unions in the new millennium and mainly two articles on a vaccination against AIDS available to all, and the corruption of officials in Lesotho. *** FSE InfoRevue. European Commission. DGV (Brussels). In the summary: of No 9 (24 p.): European employment strategy; employment problems in Europe, in general, and in Greece, in particular; the new structural funds 2000-2006; economic growth and falling unemployment in Portugal.