WEEKLY SUPPLEMENT / European library

*** PAUL SABOURIN: Le destin du continent européen. Le chemin de la Grande Europe. Editions Emile Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: [phone]). "Organisation internationale et relations internationales" series. 1999, 345 pages, FEB 2,100. ISBN 2-8027-1269-1.

Honesty requires us to admit that doing justice to this work in a critique is an impossibility. Its richness, the finesse of the political judgment permeating every page are such that summarising it would only denature it, distort its underlying line of thought. So the following lines should be taken for what they are: a very partial and superficial highlighting of only the smallest part of the work, its introduction.

Let's begin by quoting those more entitled to issue an authorised judgment. First, Michel Rocard, who concludes his foreword as follows: "In short, for all those who want our continent to be totally democratic and fully peaceful, this is not just one more book, but a book in a class of its own". Second, Michel Albert, author of a preface of a standard equal to that of Sabourin's work. This volume, he writes, "superbly reveals the challenge of presenting a full and enlightening picture of the institutions of European construction", whether Community or intergovernmental, whether concerning the economic area, the political area or the European area of security. While it raises the reader to an altitude where "he naturally breathes in the open air of European history, i.e. essentially European nationalisms", the author does not confine his analysis to our mental frontiers, making Russia, on the contrary, a compulsory protagonist -which does not mean member- in the fate of the European continent. And Michel Albert goes on to highlight the man of convictions, the militant for a cause -federal Europe- served not out of passion pure and simple, but out of passion backed up by hard facts. He explains that France committed a historical error by not taking the hand extended by Germany in the form of the Lamers-Schaüble CDU-CSU memorandum, a decisive step towards a genuine federation: after the snub Paris inflicted on Bonn, "it should be no surprise that the cult of national interest has made a noticeable return on the other side of the Rhine". Sabourin goes further in his profession of federalist faith, contends Michel Albert: in his view, "the democratic principle must apply at all levels and in accordance with full acceptance of the subsidiarity principle", which is not limited to banning "abusive interventions from Brussels", as is often said. "It also requires actions at European level". Hence, argues the author "with an implacable logic", remarks Albert, the necessity for a genuine constitutional pact for the Union, "to be drawn up and adopted prior to any enlargement to the East": "In accordance with this key act for the destiny of the European continent", the delegates of governments, namely the present Council of Ministers, should form the future Senate of Europe, expressing the autonomy of the federated states"...

For Paul Sabourin, "there will be no valid architecture of the European continent without the matrix of the European Union". An incomplete matrix, no doubt, because Community Europe is today a "successful technical achievement", but "does not yet comprise a clearly defined political project". But an imperative matrix nonetheless, because, "whether we like it or not, [it remains] the only indispensable response to globalisation", which comprises "by its very existence, the possible process of disintegration" of the EU "if enlargement precedes further reflection on the future evolution of decision-making power in Europe and its democratic control". The author then describes the fragility of the continent (due to the Union's failure to define itself and to resist external constraints), the hopes the EU carries within it and the steps to be taken to invent a "new architecture on the federal principle" from which the continent as a whole would benefit.

Michel Theys

*** Les nouvelles tendances du droit électoral dans la Grande Europe. Editions du Conseil de l'Europe (F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex. Tel: [phone], fax: [phone], [e-mail], http: //book.coe.fr). "Science et technique de la démocratie" series, No 25. 1999, 153 pages. ISBN 92-871-4069-3.

Also published in English under the title "New Trends in Electoral Law in a Pan-European Context", this work reproduces the papers presented at a colloquium in Sarajevo in April 1998, organised by the European Commission for "Democracy by Law" (a consultative body created in 1989 in the Council of Europe) in cooperation with the local university and the Initiative centre-européenne. The meeting brought together academics and practitioners who emphasised the constitutional principles underlying democratic elections: suffrage must be universal, fair, free, direct and secret. Organisational guarantees of the regularity of elections are also taken into consideration. On this basis, several cases of elections are studied in greater detail, from Hungary to Italy (with its evolution from a proportional system to a predominantly majority system), Russia and the central and eastern European countries. Particular attention is granted to the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Specific problems -the role of a president elected directly by the people, the influence of the number of parties on a government's stability, etc.- are also studied.

(LD)

*** Public Scandals. Sexual Orientation and Criminal Law in Romania. Human Rights Watch (15 rue Van Campenhout, B-1000 Bruxelles. Tel: [phone], fax: [phone], [e-mail]. org, http: //http://www.hrw.org ). 1998, 104 pages. ISBN 1-56432-178-9.

A non-governmental organisation involved in the combat to defend human rights worldwide, Human Rights Watch worked with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission to draft this report, which denounces cases of the denial of privacy and basic rights (in this case, of homosexuals) endorsed by Romanian law. As Romania is an applicant for accession to the EU, the authors deem that it must do away with this legalised intolerance.

(MT)

*** Children of Bulgaria. Police Violence and Arbitrary Confinement. Human Rights Watch (see above). 1996, 145 pages. ISBN 1-56432-200-9.

Drafted after a fact-finding mission conducted in 1996, this work denounces abuse of street children -particularly those of Roma ethnic identity- in Bulgaria, brutalised by both skinhead gangs and the police. Human Rights Watch denounces more generally the way the Bulgarian state is trying to address the problem.

(MT)

*** JEAN-PHILIPPE CHENAUX, OLIVIER DELACRÉTAZ, NICOLAS SCHMITT, MARCO TADDEI: La Suisse éclatée. Quand les "fusiologues" jouent avec le feu. Centre patronal (2 av. Agassiz, CH-1001 Lausanne, Tel: [phone], fax: [phone], [e-mail]). "Etudes & Enquêtes", No 27. 1999, 83 pages, CHF 14. ISBN 2-940089-07-8.

Published by the employers' association of the Canton of Vaud, the latest issue of Etudes et Enquêtes publishes original contributions by four politically committed intellectuals who dissect in detail various proposals for the merger or reorganisation of the Swiss cantons advocated by certain "Cassandras of moribund federalism". Indeed, the Swiss Confederation has been giving thought to its future for years, especially in German-speaking Switzerland, and in particular the survivability of its cantons given the challenges of globalisation and European construction. Are they still adapted to present and future needs? Should there be mergers or should the 26 cantons even be replaced by a few super-regions? These are the issues examined by the authors, whose intention is of course to study them as administrative areas, but also as areas expressing a specific identity, which, in a multicultural state, have for centuries guaranteed an enviable national stability, conferring particular legitimacy on the cantonal system. Voicing doubt about the level of popular support for proposals for regional grouping, they also bring to light the dynamic nature of the cantons' structures, which more often than not seek to go beyond frontiers rather than to shift them or abolish them definitively. Rather than playing political sorcerer's apprentices, the authors suggest that the cantons should be allowed to exploit all their potential through better operation of the regional institution. Seeing support in the recent successes of certain Euroregions, they also demonstrate how, without necessarily having to merge, the Swiss cantons can benefit from greater participation in cross-border cooperation experiments.

(ED)

*** ALAIN GUILLERM, Ed.: Géopolitiques des mers. Les Méditerranées d'Europe et d'Asie. CIRPES (Paris. Tel: [phone]). "Points de vue stratégiques" series. 1999, 124 pages, FRF 65.60, EUR 10s. ISBN 2-905758- 18-X.

The basic question raised by the contributors to this collection, as Alain Guillerm points out in the 'introduction, is: "What form of power can be built in opposition to the United States' mastery of the seas?" At a time when the centre of gravity is shifting from Eurasia to East Asia, "everything is new", he observes, adding that while China and Japan "are forgetting their recent wars, as France and Germany have done", Japanese and Chinese civilian and military fleets "can become a great power, creating a 'Mediterranean' with Asean" ("We simply believe that it would be a good thing for Asia to be built around its Mediterranean and the China/Japan relationship, just as Europe is being built on the Franco-German relationship today, in spite of three past wars ", states Mr Guillerm, author of "Histoire des puissances maritimes en Asie orientale"). The final part of the work focuses on the "Asian challenge" (and also discusses the cases of India and Korea), while the first concentrates on the Mediterranean, with a chapter by Admiral Labouérie on "Power, Maritime Movement and Defence" and another by Danièle Auffray on the economics involved and naval power relationships (he notes that Europe "has a chance of imposing it leadership" thanks to Euromarfor, which brings together the French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese fleets).

(MG)

*** MIRJAM VAN REISEN: EU 'Global Player'. The North-South Policy of the European Union. International Books (17 Alexander Numankade, 3572 Utrecht, Netherlands. Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone], E-mail: [e-mail]). 1999, 352 pages. ISBN 90-5727-035-8.

Prepared with the cooperation of different organisations (Eurostep in Brussels, the German section of Terre des hommes, Weed in Bonn and the Transnational Intitute in Amsterdam), this work examines the European Union's role in providing assistance to the developing world. While this role is major in financial terms, it is not matched with comparable political influence. An expert in development cooperation, Mirjam van Reisen explains the reasons for this imbalance in a constructive criticism, matched with proposals for making this action more effective. She argues for the objective of a more coherent North-South policy being placed higher on the Union's agenda. With many professional contacts in the field of development cooperation in Brussels, Mirjam van Reisen also examines in detail the role of non-governmental organisations and the underlying motivations of the Union and its Member States. The author highlights links with the ACP states and relations with Asia, including China, in the light of its possible entry into the World Trade Organisation. Mirjam van Reisen also takes a look at the debt problem.

(LD)

*** ISMAÏL SAFAR: L'ordre mondial et le monde arabe au tournant du millénaire. Publisud (15 rue des Cinq-Diamants, F-75013 Paris. Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone], publisud@ compuserve.com). "Le développement dans les faits" series. 1999, 221 pages, FRF 148. ISBN 2-86600-809-X.

The author has taught the History of Economics and International Economic Relations, along with Economics of the Arab World, in different universities (Alep in Syria, Algiers, Sfax in Tunisie, Mons in Belgium). With this work, he presents reflections on Euro-Arab-Mediterranean relations, reflections that are far from neutral in stance. His starting point is that domination and globalisation go hand in hand, that Marx and Engels are right on this point. Repeated mergers and relocations have provided sufficient evidence thereof. All countries, including the Arab world, which is starting to stir, must find their place in this context marked by the West. For Professor Safar, the Middle East peace process the United States wants to impose will affect Arab integrity. And he compares the process launched in Barcelona in 1995 to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 laying down the foundations of the Zionist state, going on to denounce the logic of domination which he claims guides the political and economic elite of the European Union. Calling for peace, democracy, tolerance and human rights not to be reserved to citizens of capitalist countries alone, he endeavours to demonstrate that Islamic fundamentalism is an expression of the proletarisation of the Arab masses and idled intellectuals. Judging that the Arab awakening is in the natural order of things, he launches an appeal to Community Europe to engage in a genuine Euro-Arab dialogue and to distance itself from Zionism and the United States, which dominate through multinationals. Not an uncontroversial analysis...

(LD)

*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION: ESDP - European Spatial Development Perspective. Towards balanced and sustainable development of the territory of the European Union. Distributed by the Official Publications Office (L-2985 Luxembourg). 1999, 82 pages, 19 euros. ISBN 92-828-7658-6.

This brochure reports on what was agreed at the informal meeting, on 10 and 11 May 1999 in Potsdam, of Ministers responsible for Spatial Planning, known as the "European Spatial Development Perspective" (ESDP). The Perspective is designed to ensure that three fundamental goals of European policy are achieve equally in all the regions of the EU: i) economic and social cohesion, ii) protection and management of vital natural resources and the cultural heritage; and iii) more balanced competitiveness of the European territory.

*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Driving Regional Development. EU Structural Funds Programmes in the UK. Distributed by the Official Publications Office. 1998, 31 pages, 7 euros. ISBN 92-828-2679-1.

This publication describes how the European Structural Funds have contributed to the development of the United Kingdom's less well-off regions. It traces the establishment of programmes in each region, which embrace a wide range of economic and social sectors. Using project examples, it explains the strategies adopted by regions to make their economies more competitive. In conclusion, the brochure looks at the results achieved by this policy and how these wil influence regional development in the UK in the future.

*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Recherche et développement technologique en Europe. 36 exemples de projets (II). Distributed by the Office for Official Publications. 1999, 79 pages. ISBN 92-828-7674-8.

The 36 projects studied in this brochure are only a small sampling of the technological research supported by the EU, but they nonetheless illustrate the objective being pursued, namely improvement of the quality of life in Europe. Projects concern improvement of the quality of food products, the production of "green" fuel (i.e. produced from vegetable matter), development of fuel cells, monitoring of tolerable polluting emissions, responses to desertification in the Mediterranean, climate change, the medical imaging revolution, development of new research tools to fight AIDS, cancer treatment, and more.

*** COMMISSION EUROPENNE: Inventory of Public Biotechnology R&D Programmes in Europe. Volume 1: Analytical Report. Distributed by the Office for Official Publications. 1999, 68 pages, 7 euros. ISBN 92-828-7235-1.

This study is a detailed analysis of publicly funded biotechnology R&D stimulation programmes in Europe. The information was collected by four groups between November 1987 and April 1999. The studies evaluated the importance attached to the biotechnology sector in the different countries, how national programmes are implemented and the resulting consequences in each country.

Journals on research and technology, briefly.

*** RDE Info. European Commission. DG for Research (Brussels). In No 25 (February 2000, 40 pages): progress and doubt (public discomfort in the face of science), the lack of dialogue between scientists and the public, raising public awareness of science, the advantages of "quarrels of experts", 2001 "European Space Odyssey", the stakes of the Galileo sagtellite navigation system, SMEs and the communication era, the advantages of joint research, cooperation between Europe and Australia in solar energy, the mystery of evolution of the prion. *** Innovation & Technology Transfer. European Commission. DG for Enterprise. In No 1/2000 (24 pages): a special feature on intellectual property and other articles on cement structure engineering, product safety, research in dentistry, process control technology for nuclear reactors, electronic commerce for businesses, the key role of SMEs in building the information society, and more. *** Courrier Anvar. Anvar (Paris). In No 122 (January 2000, 16 pages): "Man at the Heart of Innovation" is the theme of this issue. Articles discuss the development of innovation by SMEs, innovation in diagnosis via biotechnology, and so on. Also, an interview with Marylise Lebranchu, State Secretary for SMEs, Trade and the Crafts Industry, on innovation support policy.