*** ANNE DEIGHTON, ALAN S. MILWARD (Edited by): Widening, Deepening and Acceleration. The European Economic Community (1957-1963). Nomos Verlag (3-5 Waldseestrasse, Postfach 100310, D-76530 Baden-Baden - Tel: (49-7221) 21040 Fax: 210427 - http: //http://www.nomos.de - E-mail: Nomos@nomos.de) "Publications du Groupe de Liason des professeurs d'Histoire contemporaine aupres de Communautes europeennes", N7, 1999, 360 pages, DM 79, USD 45, GBP 27.50. ISBN: 3-7890-5594-8.
This volume gathers together, in English and French, the developments of the international colloquium organised in March 1996 the University of Oxford by the British members of the Liaison Group of Professors of Contemporary History with the European Communities: Anna Deighton (University of Oxford) and Alan S. Milward (European University Institute, Florence). Dedicated to the turbulent period of the beginnings of the European Economic Community (EEC) until the failure, in January 1963, of Great Britain's accession negotiations to the EEC, the symposium gathered some of the best specialists in the subject. They paid special attention to the first attempts at the enlargement and deepening of the EEC. In accordance with a tradition now well established during the meetings of the Liaison Groups, several contributions are based on national and Community archives sometime unpublished or recently declassified. Nevertheless this book offers more of a historical view than a real step forward towards new historical perspectives. Structured according to a classic thematic approach, the work has four parts. Firstly, the authors place the period under headings in its global geopolitical framework mainly characterised by the East-West bipolarity of the Cold War. Pascaline Winand (Free University of Brussels) looks at the privileged Euro-American relations. She recalls with detail what where, between 1961 and 1963, the strategic and economic priorities of the Kennedy administration. She clearly brings to light the interdependence between the bilateral relations of the United States with each of the EEC Member States and the very favourable American global vision towards the unification of Western Europe. On the other hand, Andrei Grachev (Moscow Institute of World History) explains the ideological, economic and political reasons of Soviet hostility towards the European integration process, seen, as of the end of the 1940s, in the strategies of the whole of Communist block, as a capitalist and hostile instrument. In this context of collective security, Wilfred Loth (University of Essen) then analyses the highs and lows of Franco-German relations in the light of the European perceptions of General de Gaulle and his national nuclear ambitions. The strategic origins and the causes of the Plans Fouchet 's failure are examined in detail by Prof. Georges-Henri Soutou (University of Paris IV - Sorbnonnes) and by Yves Stelandre (Catholic University of Louvain) who show the inability of the three Benelux partners to adopt - despite slogans filled with good intentions, but which badly disguised the real divergences between national interests - a common position in the face of the Gaullist project for a European political union.
The second part of the volume broaches the problem of the problematic sector-based policies and the complicated creation of the Common Agricultural Policy. Obviously the return, in December 1958, to the monetary convertibility in Western Europe mainly played a part in the development of international economic relations. This dossier, notably with regards to the international credit of the British currency and its impact on the European debate, are the object of a double contribution by Sylvia Schwaag (London School of Economic) and by Catherine Schenk (University of Glasgow). Respectively professor at the University of New South Wales (Australia) and Wellington (New Zealand), Paul Robertson and John Singlton examine with great zeal the way in which Australia, Canada and New Zealand reacted to the first call for accession by Great Britain to the EEC, whose dominions did not ignore the fact that it would ring the end of the imperial system of preferences. Then comes a more general contribution by Gisela Handricks (University of Kent) who retraces the first steps of the CAP that Johan Molengraaf and Ralph Dingemans (University of Utrecht) present as one of the Dutch government's priorities. Markus Schult (London School of Economic) and Ruggero Ranieri (University of Manchester) finally analyse the attitude of German industrialists towards the opening-up of markets and the emergence of a European Economic Community.
In the third section, the authors concentrate on the reaction of the EEC members towards the first British candidacy for accession. Maurice Vaisse (Centre for the Historical Study of Defence, Vincennes) reviews the arguments for the refusal by General de Gaulle and emphasises, particularly well, France's desire to exclude England from its European defence plan and to privilege, on the contrary, the deepening of the common market rather than its enlargement. While Sabine Lee (University of Birmingham) demonstrates that Chancellor Adenaur was not keen on risking stopping a Franco-German rapprochement to achieve British accession, R. Dingemans and Arend Jan Boekestijn (University of Utrecht) recall why the Netherlands where so favourable towards the enlargement of the EEC and towards a larger free trade area which was also favoured by the British. Antonio Varsori (University of Florence) finally details why and how Italy tried in vain to intercede with its European partners in favour of British accession.
The final part of the book focuses on the accession or association candidate countries. Two contributions are dedicated to the British request for accession. Wolfram Kaiser (University of Vienna) offers an original interpretation in that he suggests that this candidacy had not chance of succeeding, but that it answered the internal political objectives, while offering an adapted answer to American pressure. N. Piers Ludlow (Oxford University) also goes against the current of ideas by attributing - in a convincing manner - to Great Britain and its leader Harold Macmillan the main responsibility for the failure of the negotiations. Prof. Dermot Keogh (University of Cork) demonstrates, as for him, that the Irish candidacy marked a definitive break with the tradition of economic protectionism. Mikael af Malmborg (University of Lund) deciphers that way in which Sweden defined, in the early years, its relations with the EEC by putting the debate in the context of the Nordic collective security system. Michael Gehler (University of Innsbruck) then analyses the strategy followed by the Austria leaders, in favour of a concrete customs union in 1960, through the creation of the European Free Trade Association. Philippe Mioche (University of Provence) examines the economic and political motivations and reticence of the Six against the Greek association to the EEC in 1961. Finally, Fernando Guirao (University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) examines Spain's attitude towards the EEC, from the signing of the Treaties of Rome until the opening of negotiations with the Community.
Etienne Deschamps
*** 2000. The European journal, Die Europaische Zeitschrift, La Revue Européenne, Revista Europea, Rivista Europea, gangemi Editore (4 piazza San Pantaleo, I-00186 Roma, E-mail: gangemi@net.it). June 2000, 8 pages, EUR 5, GBP 4, FF 35, ESP 900 and ITL 10,000. Annual subscription EUR 10.
As atypical and sympathetic initiative as this one, fruit of the dreams of European historians who, under the wing of Prof. Vincenzo Merolle from the University of La Sapienza in Rome, intend to remind the institutions that Europe has never ceased being culturally unitary. Among the contributions of this first issue, let us cite Lichtenberg and the English Language, Die Rumanen und "Europa" and the "Ecphrasis dans les recits des voyageurs allemands et francais a l'epoche des lumiéres".
(M.T.)
*** MARION SCHREIBER: Stille Rebellen Der Uberfall auf den Deportationszug nach Aushwitz. Aufbau Verlag (Berlin, internet: http://www.aufbau-verlag.de ). 2000, 352 pages. ISBN 3-351-02510-0.
Marion Schreiber, journalist for thirty years and, from 1986 to 1998, Brussels correspondent for "Spiegel", where she still lives, chose to tell, in this book written with the intelligence of the hart, one of the incredible episodes of courage that marked the history of the resistance against nazism and fascism in Europe, an episode lived in Belgium and that all Europeans should hear. It is the story of three young men who, armed simply with a pistol, three crow bars and a lamp, had attacked a train that was to take 1,631 Jews to Auschwitz, so saving the lives of more than 200 people. Two of them survived the concentration camps. The Marion Schrieber's tail has, at times the strength of a novel, a strength that come from familiarity that, with her very detailed research and her contacts with several witnesses (including six of the people, which the young 'rebels" had saved), the author manages to establish with her heroes, to who she gives life. As she gives life to the setting in which they lived, in Brussels at the time of the occupation, through the pages of this thick and powerful book, both sombre and moving.
(M.G.)
*** CAROLINE SÄGESSER: Les résultats des élections européennes de juin 1999. Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (Crisp, 35 rue du Congrès, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2183226 - E-mail: crisp@cfwb.be). "Courrier hebdomadaire" series, N° 1,678. 2000, 47 pages, BEF 275.
In this "weekly post" from Crisp, the author methodically reviews the latest results of the European elections in the fifteen Member States of the EU, by granting special attention to the Belgian election. She also analyses the formation of the political groups present in the current Assembly and draws a first assessment of its activities. In these conclusions, Caroline Sägesser notably reveals that the Parliament presided by Nicole Fontaine is "more to the right than the previous one' and that one of the most remarkable elements of the last election was the very low rate of participation seen in most of the Member States, which inspired the following comment: "This weak participation and the disinterest for the European thing it insinuates appear to be contradictory compared to the growing importance of the Parliament's prerogatives and to the frequent calls for a democratisation of the functioning of the European institutions". Another similarity that she observes in nearly all the European countries: the recourse to famous candidates "who are not always competent, the experience neither the training that is useful for the carrying out of their European parliamentary mandate", which makes the author fear that the parties are thus contributing "to throwing discredit on an institution of which they claim to increase its visibility".
(MT)
*** L'Europe en formation. Les Cahiers du fédéralisme. Centre international de formation européenne (10 av. des Fleurs, F-06000 Nice. Tel: (33-4) 93979397 - Fax: 93979398 - E-mail: europe.formation@wanadoo.fr ). Summer 2000, N° 317. Abnnual subscription: FF 185.
In this latest issue of the review founded by Alexandre Marc, are two articles on international law and the protection of minorities, in which are published several contributions on the intergovernmental conference on institutional reform of the EU and the path to follow after Nice, including the text of the preliminary draft of the "fundamental pact for Europe" drawn-up Professor Jean Touscoz, honorary President of the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis and Director of the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur la Coopération Internationale. The latter, who consulted numerous specialists before drawing up the draft pact under seven headings and 24 articles (on which he would like to receive comments and suggestions), indicates that he notably used the work of the University Institute of Florence on the reorganisation of the Treaties, and while feeling that it is needed to "formulate proposals for realistic reforms, susceptible of truly being adopted", and he felt that it is not possible to reason with "constant law". Furthermore, by introducing this "constitutional debate" now topical (see joint article by Chancellor Schröder and the Italian Prime Minister Amato), the Director of the publication Ferdiand Kinsky recalls that the draft for a European Constitution was already supported by the "personalised school of federalism, in particular by the trend lead by Alexander Marc".
(MG)
*** CLAUDIO DE ROSE: L'evoluzione del diritto pubblico comunitario 1993-1998. Edizioni Italedi (19 Piazza Cavour, I-00193 Rome. Tel: (39-06) 3210803 - Fax: 3210808). 2000, 799 pages, ITL 100,000.
Senior magistrate at the Italian Court of Auditors and Professor in Community Law at the Institute for European Studies "Alcide de Gasperi" in Rome, the author gathers, in this work, various articles dealing with Community law that have been drafted between 1993 and 1998. For Antonio La Pergola, Advocate General at the European Court of Justice and who wrote the preface, they contribute to the knowledge in the field in that it underlines all the facts that the main function of Community law is to resolve relations between Community institutions and with the national institutions and legal systems. Prof. La Pergola welcomes the scientific rigour and the precision with which are analysed the themes gathered together in five groups: institutional aspects, EU monetary and economic policy, aspects of the European single market, EU sector based policies and Italian Community laws, administrative controls and jurisdictional measures with a Community nature. Everything is connected by a logic of continuity and causality that takes into account the development of the Community institutions and their means for intervention in favour of the European citizens' common interests. Through the diversity of the subjects it treats, Prof. De Rose also underlines the need to reinforce the Community institutions, in particular the EP in its function of political control and under the angle of its participation in the creation of Community standards. Considering that the cultural cohesion has, it to, an essential role to play, the author finally insists on the importance of the contribution made by the Council of Europe and, in particular, by the "Committee for democracy through law", notably for his analytical work on the European constitutional heritage and the identification of fundamental common traits in the various legal systems. This activity of reconstruction and reflection especially targets the acquisition of common legal practices, guaranteeing the full integration of the various European legal systems, necessary condition, according to Claudio De Rose, for the creation of the political unity of Europe.
(CB)
*** Europa-Europe. Fondazione Istituto Gramsci (95c, via Portuense, I-00153 Rome. Tel: (39-65) 8334151 - fax: 83349186 - Internet: http://www.europaeurope.it - E-mail: redazione@europaeurope.it). Bimonthly, Year 9, n° 3, 2000. Annual subscription: ITL 120,000 (Italy) or ITL 180,000 (Abroad).
One of the themes broached is the Italian political situation since the regional elections last 16 April, date on which the centre right coalition was formed. It is an unavoidable issue, according to the political scientist Giuseppe Vacca, since the pre election alliance between il Polo of Silvio Berlusconi and the Lega, the Northern League of Umberto Bossi. For Professor Vacca, the centre left government of Massimo D'Alema has tried for two years to strengthen the links with Europe, both at an economic as well as social level, notably over the issue of immigration. A policy followed by the present government. Though Umberto Bossi has always asserted that his party is secessionist. As for the part of Silvio Berlusconi, his economic programme is of a nationalist type. Can we be European and also not? It is to this question that Giuseppe Vacca attempts to answer. "Ethno-nationalism and identity", "the Italian-American left", "the Italian economy in the Europe of change" and "the use of the Internet " are other subjects dealt with in this issue.
*** Internationale Politik. Einiges Deutschland? Verlag für Internationale Politik (Bachstraße, 32, D-53115 Bonn. Tel: (49-228) 7290010 - fax: 695734 - E - mail: EUV-VIP@t-online.de). Monthly, september 2000, n° 9. Annual subscription: DM 190.
"FPÖ: between ideology and nationalist turn ", this is the title of an article in this review. Also there is the issue of Kosovo: while the inhabitants of Belgrade demonstrate for a democratic Serbia, the historian Rafael Biermann, draws an assessment and looks at the prospects of the tragedy that this region has seen. On the other hand, the review returns to the opening speech of the 10-year anniversary of German reunification, when the French President, Jacques Chirac, recalled that the Franco-German axis was the basis of the European Union. The new generation in Berlin does not seem to see things the same way. This is the opinion of Stephan Martens, sociologist.
*** Revue internationale du travail. Bureau international du travail (CH-1211, Geneva, 22. Tel: (41-22) 7996510 - fax: 7996117 - E - mail: revue@ilo.org). Vol. 139, n° 2, 2000. Annual syubscription: EUR 60.
Semiretirement is a transition between full-time employment and full retirement. Denis Latulippe and John Turner, respectively economist and lawyer, have examined, in eight countries, the effects of early retirement in terms of benefits for the labour market, the cost for social security and the financial implication for the employer. They formulate pertinent conclusions for an economy where the maintaining of people in the labour market as long as possible becomes a necessity. The other theme broached: the action started to ensure decent work in a context of globalisation. For Amartya Sen, lawyer, the solution is the recognition of general rights that transcend the internal legal order, a form of Treaty on the right to decent work. Though for this it is also need to place the work in the social, political and legal perspective, which encompasses all democratic values. "Social policies and social protection", "Social protection for all, yes but how provide it?" and "equal treatment and resources for women" are other subjects broached.
*** Documents. Revue des questions allemandes (50, rue Laborde, F-75008 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43879040 - fax: 42935094 - E-mail: bild.documents@wanadoo.fr). July-August 2000. Annual subscription: FF 230 (France), FF 250 (Abroad).
In summary: "Franco-German, the dossier of delays", "Ten years after, Germany in the face of tasks from a new century", "Who is Wolfgang Hilbig?", "Hanover, what is the expo for?", "German memory, what is it?", "Twelve years for the German", "The European vanguard ", "France and the French as seen by the Germans", "recent books of Franco-German cooperation ".
National reviews
*** Bulletin européen. Milan, N° 601-602. In summary: "Where is Europe going ", "European Council of Feira: common strategy for the European Union for the Mediterranean region", "The world day for the environment", "The European Charter of fundamental rights", "The protection of Italian and European food processed products" and "assessment of Community activity". ***Working life, Research and development news. Stockholm. In summary: night work, the reduction of new prices in the social security and health sector.