*** RORY O'DONNEL, Ed.: Europe. The Irish Experience. Institute of European Affairs (Europe House, 8 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1. Tel: (353-1) 8746756, fax: 8786880, Email: info@iea.iol.ie, Internet: http://www.iiea.com ). 2000, 233 pages, GBP 15, EUR 19. ISBN 1-874109-48-6.
"In spite of the ups and downs of the past 25 years, the Irish policy of remaining close to the core countries (the original Six) of the Union has been a constant and was a strategy shared across the Irish political spectrium", observes Terry Stewart, Director General of the Institute of European Affairs (chaired by Brendan Halligan), in the Foreword to this work whose contributors participated personally in the experience of Ireland's integration into Europe, or who followed the process closely. Like the other contributors, Mr Stewart makes a point of stating that, over and above the obvious economic advantages of membership of the European Union, the most striking effect of the process was the "change of attitude" in Ireland. "No one foresaw the massive growth in confidence which was to take place amongst young Irish people as they became part of that wider community", he states, noting that another important effect of joining the European Community was the transformation of "our relations with the United Kingdom". In this connection, former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Garrett FitzGerald recalls that, when the new Labour government tried to renegotiate the United Kingdom's entry terms in 1974, the general tendency in Ireland was to consider that, if failure of this process led to Britain's withdrawal, "we should remain in the Community", whereas earlier everyone was of the view that Ireland could not afford to join without the United Kingdom. "At the time, I could not help wondering how, in the short space of fifteen months, the balance of advantage in relation to EEC membership without Britain could have changed so decisively", recalls the former Irish Prime Minister.
Brendan Halligan, recalling that FitzGerald prophetically wrote that "EEC membership would be a psychological liberation" for the Irish, expresses the view that the "Irish psyche (more accurately, the psyche of those of us who chose or could afford to live and work at home) needed to be liberated from the chains of the past and to be given its first opportunity since independence to express itself as it wished". And for Liam Ryan, who teaches psychology at Maynooth College (National University of Ireland), Irish society has changed more over the past 25 years than at any time in its history. Even if this is not entirely due to accession to the European Community, Ireland has seen take place in one generation what took over 100 years in the United Kingdom and in a good part of Western Europe, observes Mr Ryan. Peter Cassels, Secretary General of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, while noting the scale of the transformation in Ireland, also observes that all the countries of Europe are going through a period of rapid change and that "the scale of the transformation required to support the respositioning of European society, and in that context Irish society, has, however, yet to be grasped". On the more specific aspect of Ireland's adjustment to the new context (adjustment by the public administration), Brigid Laffan, Jean Monnet Professor at University College Dublin, speaks of "rapid adjustment" and "easy coordination", even if this required "cultural and institutional changes which inevitably took time".
Ireland's "motivation" and "expectations" of Europe examined by the different contributors are reviewed in the conclusions by Rory O'Donnell, also a Jean Monnet Professor at University College Dublin, who stresses the extent to which "material and other motivations were interwoven" and that membership of Europe has "strengthened the very identity which we previously tried to protect by isolation". Rory O'Donnell, quoting Dermot McAleese (Professor at Trinity College) also recalls the "human contribution" made to European integration by the "impact of outstanding Irish individuals, such as Garret FitzGerald, Peter Sutherland, Ray MacSharry, Jim Dooge and Maurice Doyle". In his view, the fact of making a success of membership in Europe is Ireland's contribution to European integration because this success "proves that a small, peripheral, less-advanced, post-colonial country can catch up with the leading European post-imperial nations", notably through regional integration of the sort developed in Europe.
Marina Gazzo
*** JEAN-DOMINIQUE NUTTENS, FRANÇOIS SICARD: Assemblées parlementaires et organisations européennes. La Documentation française (29-31 quai Voltaire, F-75344 Paris Cedex 07. Internet: http: //ladocfrancaise.gouv.fr). "Les Etudes de la documentation française". 2000, 1345 pages, FRF 81.99, EUR 12.50. ISBN 2-11-004500-0.
The authors, administrator and adviser respectively at the French Senate, analyse parliamentary democracy, which is constantly evolving due to the development of a "specific European parlementarianism", given the parliamentary dimension appearing in all aspects of the organisation of Europe. For the authors, the most difficult issue is the coexistence between European parliamentarianism and national parliamentarianism, which "remain different and appear irreplaceable each in its own way, and whose complementarity has doubtless not been sufficiently organised to date".
Particular emphasis is obviously given to the European Parliament and its relations with the national parliaments (which, for several months, united under an "original formula", have now been working together in the Convention charged with drafting the European Charter of Fundamental Rights), but the work also describes the working of European interparliamentary assemblies -the Council of Europe, the WEU (which is increasingly insistently studying its future and the maintenance of a parliamentary dimension in the area of European security, as the Western European Union is destined to merge with the European Union), NATO (which is opening up more to the countries of eastern European and the former Soviet Union) and the OSCE. With regard to the "specific nature of European parliamentarianism", the authors note in particular that it is a "parlementarianism of consensus", but since the European elections of last June, with the EPP taking over the Socialist Group's number-one spot in the European Parliament, this situation has changed somewhat... As to the widely decried "democratic deficit" in Europe, the authors observe that it is doubtless in a combination of national scrutiny and European scrutiny "that the democratic deficit can continue to be reduced, because, in reality, this deficit is multiform and not simply related to the European Parliament's role in the Union's institutions". (MG)
*** Annales d'études européennes de l'Université catholique de Louvain 1998-1999. Droit et questions socio-économiques, institutions et démocratie, coopération internationale, culture. Etablissements Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Bruxelles. Tel: 025129845). 1999, 289 pages. FEB 2,500. ISBN 2-8027-1293-4.
With a foreword by Professor Michel Dumoulin, President of the European Studies Institute of Catholic University of Louvain, this multidisciplinary work presents, like its two predecessors, a number of contributions on European integration. Its chapters are entitled "Law and Socio-economic Issues", "Institutions and Democracy", "International Cooperation" and "Culture". In Part One, Olivier de Schutter reviews the origins of the enthusiasm that inspired the German Ordoliberalen at the start of European integration, and Bernard Conter and Christian Maroy study how workers in the French-speaking part of Belgium adapted to changes fostered by the European Social Fund. In a more political section, Etienne Deschamps (well known to readers of the European Library...) underlines, turning to the project for a European Political Community, the limits of willingness to give up sovereignty in the light of Belgium's refusal at the time to see the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi included in that finally aborted Community. Of interest also are the reflections on the possible under-representation of certain States in the Council of Ministers and a comparative study of the democratisation process in Hungary and Chile. In the section on international cooperation, Tanguy de Wilde d'Estmael describes the origins, decisive factors and changes in relations between the Union and sub-Saharan Africa while Catherine De Montlibert-Dumoulin characterises EU policy with the newly independent states, which has moved from a "heavily commercial diplomacy to an ethical dimension". The Union's contribution to combating illegal drug trafficking in Colombia is also addressed. (LD)
*** NATHALIE HERVÉ-FOURNEREAU: L'enterprise et le droit communautaire de l'environnement. Editions Apogée (4 Bld Gaëtan-Hervé, BP 20224, F-35041 Rennes cedex - Tel.: (33-2) 99324595 - Fax: 99324598 - E-mail: apogee.rennes@wanadoo.fr). Collection "Publications du pôle européen Jean Monnet de l'Université de Rome 1". 1999, 524 p., 240 FF, EUR 36.59. ISBN 2-84389-056-9.
She gets off to a strong start, when highlighting Teilhard de Chardin for whom, "in the world, man entered without a sound". This is intriguing. Though only slightly. As whoever has this book in their hands would have read or, at least, previously read the foreword and preface that describe the person and scope of his thought. And who will already be convinced. "Results of an impressive work of research" (according to Michel Prieur, from the CNRS) that gave her a doctorate in Community environmental law from the University of Rennes I in February 1998, this book "leads the reader, with subtlety and intelligence, through the maze of the multiple formal and informal sources of Community policy and Community environmental law". Thus he sees, still according to Prieur, "being forged in twenty five years the respective strategies of companies and the Commission who, in the face of regular pollution, searches to not perturb the balanced development of economic activities, then searches, concertedly, to achieve the objective of a high level of production by the environment guarantor of sustainable development". The main is not there. It lies in the dual approach of the company privileged by Nathalie Hervé-Fournereau: the company is repeatedly apprehended as "economic activity" and "economic entity". Perfectly summarised by Prof. Jean Raux, co-ordinator of the European Jean Monnet branch at the same University, it is thus asked to "live differently". Which will offer it, in return, to be recognised as an actor in its own right in Community environmental law, it who "becomes partner and participates in a judicial regulation of society". Can one hope that, as written by Jean Raux, "the growing grip of the economic entity" will inevitably accompany itself, for the company, "with an invitation to fully assume its responsibilities, whatever the challenge that presents itself"? Nathalie Hervé-Fournereau's merit is, either way, to have opened paths allowing for belief in it. (MT)
*** KATRIN FORGÓ: Europäisches Umweltzeichen und Welthandel. Grundlagen, Entscheidungsprozesse, rechtliche Fragen. Springer (Sachsenplatz 4-6, P.O. 89, A - 1201 Wien. Tel.: (43-1) 330 24 15 - Fax: 330 24 26 - E-mail: books@springer.at). Collection "Schriftenreihe des Forschungsinstituts für Europafragen der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien", Band 16. 1999, 312 p., 686 ÖS. 98 DM. ISBN 3-211-83163-O.
Katrin Forgó dedicated her thesis, defended in 1997 and the University of Vienna, to the European ecological label and international trade. This very current, seen the debate caused by meat labelling and labels enabling the recognition of genetically modified ingredients in foods, brings the author to observe that "voluptuary" ecological labels developed in a growing manner throughout the world and complement binding policy measures. Enforced more than eight years ago, the ecological label gave a particular impetus to a question whose importance has merely grown at an international trade level.
In her study, Katrin Forgò presents, analyses and evaluates this European programme, particularly insisting on the decision making process and on the discussions over the its implications for international trade law. The subject is articulated in five parts. The first defines, with precision, the term "ecological label" and assesses its effectiveness at a commercial level. The second retraces the progress of the Directive until its adoption. The author then broaches its fields of application with the problems this raises, though without basing itself on official positions: the analysis results from personal meetings and officious reports. The aspects of international trade law and those more political are developed in the fourth section: the author notably raises the scepticism recently brought to light around the ecological label. The publication is punctuated with a series of proposals aiming to redirect the concept of this label. (CB)
*** PHILIPPE TABARY: Comptes et mécomptes de l'agriculture. Le cherche midi éditeur (23 rue du Cherche-Midi. F-75006 Paris. Tel.: (33-1) 42227120 - Fax: 45440838). 1999, 240 p., 110 FF, EUR 16,76. ISBN 2-86274-668-1.
Of course, there are European civil servants that can write in an intelligible manner, abandoning the technocratic jargon to (try to) make himself understood by the greatest number of people . Philippe Tabary is one of them and his latest publication is a model of this genre: from the basis of sixty preconceived, prejudices or cut and dried decisions, he returns European agriculture to the middle of the village, national and global. His ideas, clear, simple, serene, but pugnacious, allow to better understand the agricultural sphere, its rapid developments, that give it life. Even these should read it to help them situate themselves. Oh yes, Tabary was a journalist... (MT)
*** Les biocarburants dans l'Union européenne: un atout à valoriser. Rapport de l'Assemblée nationale française (http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr; Kiosque de l'Assemblée nationale: 4 rue Arsitide Briand, F-75007 Paris). No 2361 of "Les documents de l'Assemblée nationale" series. 2000, 110 pages, EUR 6.10 (or FRF 40).
According to French MP François Guillaume, who drafted this study, the question of biofuels is at the centre of several Community objectives, but is not given satisfactory treatment at EU level. The use of this type of fuel, which accounts for less than 1% of fuel used for road transport, nevertheless offers advantages from the standpoint of both agricultural and energy policy. This report makes proposals for improvement of the Community framework for biofuels in order to promote their development.
*** L'énergie nucléaire en Europe: union ou confusion ? Rapport du Sénat - Délégation pour l'Union européenne (site Internet: http: //http://www.senat.fr; Espace Librairie du Sénat: 20 rue de Vaugirard; F-75006 Paris, tel: (33-1) 42342121). No 320 in "es rapports du Sénat" series. 2000, 188 pages, EUR 6.86 (FRF 45).
Based on the observation that Member States in favour of nuclear energy now represent a minority of the Fifteen, the French Senate Delegation examines the current state of affairs and the future prospects for this type of energy in Europe. The report raises several questions, among which: Where does debate stand in different Member States? Are alternatives to nuclear energy realistic given the extent of Europe's energy needs? Can the Union do without nuclear energy while reducing its CO² emissions? Is the EU's intervention to improve the safety of nuclear reactors in eastern Europe effective?
*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION - DG RESEARCH: Inventory of Public Biotechnology R&D Programmes in Europe. Distributed by the Office of Official Publications (L-2985 Luxembourg) Vol. 2 and 3: National Reports. 1999, var. pag., EUR 18.50 (Vol. II) and EUR 14.50 (Vol. III).
These two volumes analyse the the state of public biotechnology R&D programmes in all the EU Member States. The analyses focus on the national characteristics of biotech policy in general, take stock of national programmes providing aid for biotech research and development, assess the state of research currently in progress and describe the characteristics of biotechnology research and development in the Member States. Numerous statistical tables accompany the studies. Volume II presents the reports on Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland and Ireland. Volume III presents the studies on Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
*** The EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (http: //http://www.eea.eu.int ) has published the following studies, distributed by the Official Publications Office (L-2985 Luxembourg).
- Environment Signals 2000. European Environment Agency regular indicator report. Environmental assessment report No 6. 2000, 108 pages, EUR 17.50. ISBN 92-9167-205-X. This report highlights the progress accomplished in several sectors of environmental policy, of particular interest today (renewable energy, agricultural pollution, climate change, air pollution, etc.).
- Are we moving in the right direction? Indicators on transport and environment integration in the EU. Environmental issues series No 12. 2000, 136 pages, 7 euros. ISBN 92-9167-206-8. This report examines the improvements to be made to transport policy to make it more effective and flexible, in keeping with environment policy, and capable of improving the quality of life of all citizens.
*** Environment for Europeans. Magazine of the DG for the Environment, European Commission, distributed by the Office for Official Publications (L-2985 Luxembourg).
In No 1 (March 2000): the protocol on biosecurity, environmental protection in eastern Europe, nuclear safety in the applicant countries, mining safety, the lessons to be learnt from the Erika disaster. No 2 (May 2000) focuses on how citizens' environmental expectations are taken into account, the reduction of greenhouse gases, the recycling of agricultural waste, the polluter-pays principle, the danger of obsolete Russian nuclear submarines.