*** NATHALIE BERGER: La politique européenne d'asile et d'immigration. Enjeux et perspectives. Etablissements Emile Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5129845). 2000, 269 pages, BEF 2,300. ISBN 2-8027-1299-3.
Revised version of a doctoral thesis that she wrote in 1998 at the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, this study forms, without a doubt a precedent: never has such an exhaustive research been dedicated to European asylum and immigration policy. As noted in the preface by Prof. Christian Mestre, President of this University, "some, still, question the pertinence of qualifying as a policy all the texts with a significantly disparate status and whose content sometime marry impressions, ambiguity and uncertainties". A point of view that Prof. Franklin Dehouss, Belgian Special Representative in the Amsterdam Treaty negotiations, corroborates when he writes in his foreword, with the acid pen he is know for: "the text of the Amsterdam Treaty in the field of immigration and asylum has often been presented as confused and contradictory. The preparation left, sadly, much to be desired, in numerous areas. Let use pay a lot more attention to the theological merits compared to the Community and intergovernmental techniques that the aims sought"…
Thus Nathalie Berger adventured into a marquis that would have rebutted more than one. Though as underlined by Prof. Mestre, "with pioneers there is always a lot of passion, enthusiasm and derision". This conquering spirit enabled her, in the end, to show with rigour and force - and talent on a literary level, Franklin Dehousse welcomes her "writing, very clear, a clear break which chases fortiori away" and adding with irony: "Luckily, the style of Miss Berger inspires itself more from the civil code in Stendhal than in the never ending European Directives"… Than the European Union action in the two fields historically at the heart of national sovereignty, asylum and immigration, become an unavoidable reality. In fact, we come from far. At first, even the notion of third country national was not even the object of a common definition. Thus the author recalls the Federal Republic of Germany had underlined in a declaration, during the signing of the Treaty of Rome that it would consider East Germans as… "nationals" benefiting from Community law (with the hindsight, we should rejoice at the correctness of this premonition…) while on the other hand, certain British subjects where, a few years later, excluded from this notion and thus from benefiting from the rights issued from the Treaty. And though, the facts are there: Europe now speaks as one in these so sensitive matters. Its that need guide laws. The turning point arises in the 1990s. The development of the geopolitical context of Eastern Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as the conflict in the former Yugoslavia are the cause of massive migratory phenomenon towards the States of Western Europe. Illegal immigration increases in considerable proportions. The number of demands for asylum recorded in the Community countries triples between 1991 and 1992 and doubles again - without taking into account the former Yugoslavia - between 1991 and 1992. The phenomenon of "economic refugees" are "of such a size that it seems susceptible of putting the institution of asylum into jeopardy"… For the Member States taken individually, the situation becomes untenable; they must break line and take part in a concerted action strategy towards members of third countries. Maybe they do not measure the extent to which they are putting their finger into an unstoppably cog, even if they sometimes grimace. Though the needs is always overriding, from crisis to crisis, increasingly: the war in Kosovo will one day teach them that "only a mechanism for the repartition of burden can avoid the overflow of the ability to host of the most affected States". Today, the Fifteen admit, they who have just agreed to provide the Union with a European fund for refugees…
It is the story of the rise in power of a European asylum and immigration policy that Nathalie Berger unravels. Firstly, she defines with precision the general framework of the migration policy. Then she examines the stakes and the prospects for the formation of a common policy, by scrupulously paying attention to distinguish "traditional" immigration - which includes economic, personal and family stakes - and asylum which, "on the other hand, stems from the sphere of the fundamental rights of a human being". Even if she does not broach the progress achieved towards the establishment of a freedom, security and justice area since the European Council in Tampere, Nathalie Berger demonstrates superbly, with this work, that the formation of a European asylum and immigration policy has become a fundamental stake in the European building process
Michel Theys
*** MARC MARESCEAU (Edited by): Revue des Affaires Européennes - Law & European Affairs. Mys & Breesch Editeurs (12 Graslei, B-9000 Gent, Belgium. Tel: (32-9) 2236471 - Fax: 2231364). 2000, N° 1-2, 204 pages, FF 165 (subscription: EUR 255). ISBN 90-5462-385-3.
This irreproachable review from an academic point of view tackles, in this issue, a subject that is not only of an extreme political sensitivity", but also especially complex to study scientifically", the political and legal elements of the problem of immigration in the Union being intimately linked. In his editorial, Pr. Marc Maresceau (President of the European Studies Institute at the University of Gent) does not hesitate to locate it without kid gloves. Brussels national airport, 5 October 1999. For the first time since the second world war, Belgium carried out a "forced collective deportation". (…) rejected the right to asylum, 74 Slovak Roma, after having been gathered in the police offices, are repatriated by plane towards Slovakia. On their wrists and for arms, numbers and letters had been written in ink in order to indicate their seat on the plane"… This fact only further engages the author and forms a precedent in the European library; it has as only reason to draw attention to the drift, which fill the nightmarish pages of our history. We are here.. But why? The merit of this issue of the Review of European Affairs is firstly the problem of immigration through a multidisciplinary approach with a very wide scope. Esther Ezra thus offers a very detailed comparative research on immigration in Great Britain, Germany , France, while Hélène Rannou considers immigration in the light of the relatively recent concept of European citizenship. By analysing the Amsterdam Treaty and the conclusion of the Tampere summit, Kris Pollet denounces the ambiguity of the policy, which is forming at the heart of the EU and, in particular, the fact that its materialises "without the prospect of any development towards a new legal system organising legal immigration" (this is precisely the situation, commented Prof. Maresceau, who "explains why many migrants continue to use this asylum procedure, or even abuse it, since they become due to force nearly the only way to enter into the promised land"). Furthermore, three contributions cover recent the legislative developments of three Member States: Klaus-Dieter Schnapauff examines in detail the new German law on citizenship, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden described the European dimension of the new French laws on immigration and citizenship which, according to her, come from the desire to counter the rise of the extreme right. Finally Bruno Nascimbene demonstrates, in the light of the law on immigration of which Italy is provided in 1998, that a humanitarian approach remains needed even if, in this country as in so many others, "the control of migratory flows remains a priority".
The second part of this publication contains four contribution examining various fundamental aspects linked to the problem of immigration. Firstly, Pétros Stangos analyses with finesse the contribution of the Court of Justice and demonstrates, through four recent rulings, that its jurisprudence has contributed towards improving the economic and social situation of non-Community migrant workers, this despite the trend of the Member States to oppose in a quasi-systematic manner that the provision of an international agreement may be invoked. Two other studies broach the problem of the link existing between immigration and racism. Carlos Esposito thus examines the answer that is given by the Union, to racist phenomenon, while Nicola Girasoli shows, through the fate reserved for the Roma, the specificity of the concrete problem of racism, which extends well beyond the Union borders, to the extent that the Fifteen have made it a reference point in the evaluation of candidate countries (though, comments Pr. Maresceau, it is also a case, in their leader, to slow non-desirable immigration, a "certain touch of machiavellianism" being" never completely absent" in the field of immigration policy). Finally Elisa Baroncini studies the assistance policy initiated by the EU towards displaced peoples.
(MT)
*** SYLVIA PREUSS-LAUSSINOTTE: Les fichiers et les étrangers au coeur des nouvelles politiques de sécurité. Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence (31 rue Falguière,F-75741 Paris Cedex 15). Collection "Bibliothèque de droit public", tome 209. 2000, 426 pages, FF 260, EUR 39.64. ISBN 2-275-01893-X.
Lecturer in public law at Paris X (Nanterre), the author dives, with this work, into a worrying parallel world , that of the "technologies of sovereignty" where huge police files are put together, holding the keys of European security policies. Increasingly sophisticated and powerful computer systems, which control foreigners access to Europe with an unprecedented scope and without any real democratic control. In the first part of the book, Sylvia Preuss-Laussinotte presents the process underway, as a whole, at the national and European level. In the second part she proposes a pointed analysis of the legal guarantees drawn up in the framework of the major computer systems. A study which leads her to note that the overlaps and the extreme complexity of these guarantees make it hardly effective. Thus, it is the more general question of the status of rights in a European society under computer surveillance, especially for foreigners, which is asked.
(MT)
*** GIULIANO AMATO, JUDY BATT: Border Regimes and Border Protection in the Enlarged European Union. The Robert Schuman Centre (European University Institute, Convento, 9 via dei Roccettini, I-50016 San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy. Fax: (39-055) 4685770 - E-mail: divry@iue.it). "Policy Papers" series, N° 99/6. 1999, 13 pages.
This work summarises in a very synthetic manner the discussion that the Study Group jointly set-up by the Robert Schuman Centre of the European Institute in Florence and the Forward looking cell in the European Commission are dedicated to the long-term implications of enlargement for the nature of the Union's external borders. Starting from the realisation that nobody today knows where this border will lie, the authors notably reveals that cooperation in the fields of Justice and Home Affairs can be legitimately misconstrued in the candidate countries and that it is for the Fifteen to tie with them the links of police cooperation based upon a reciprocal trust and a fair sharing of the burden.
(MT)
*** JOSEF HEIMANN: "Visa, Asyl, Einwanderung und andere Politiken betreffend den freien Personenverkehr"- der neue Titel IV EGV unter besonderer Berüchsichtigung des Schengen Protokolls". - Zentrum für Europäische Rechtspolitik an der Universität Bremen (Universitätsallee, GW 1, 28359 Bremen). "Discussionspapier" collection, N° 2/99. 1999, 84 pages, DM 15.
The new Title IV of the EC Treaty, dedicated to "visas, asylum, immigration and other policies linked to the free movement of persons", is deconstructed in this issue. Josef Heimann reveals and analyses the particularities that differentiate the Treaty from the usual plan for the functioning of Community law. For the author, the present assessment is positive: for the first time the Union has at its disposal, thanks to it, a legal instrument, which has as aim to suppression of internal borders. It also reflects the Member States fear of losing competence in the sensitive fields at the heart of national sovereignty. Though for Josef Heiman, Title IV benefits Community law as it strengthens the competence of the Commission, European Parliament and the Court of Justice. Finally, he feels, that the Schengen protocol put an end to the coexistence between, on the one hand, the EU and, on the other hand, the "Schengen cooperation" with its "secondary functional law", the aim of the Union being to create a true area without internal borders.
(CB)
*** CLAUDE GAMBLIN: L'immigration française en Grande-Bretagne 1789-1815. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole-Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - E-mail: harmat@worldnet.fr). "L'aire anglophone" collection. 2000, 311 pages, FF 160. ISBN 2-7384-8924-9.
This work is the product of one man who, after having dedicated most of his career to external economic relations, supported a thesis dedicated to refugees from the French revolution in Great Britain. Through newspapers, reviews, accounts, personal correspondence, English C18 and C18 engravings, the author examines with a critical eye the situation, which was imposed upon members of the nobility, priests, constitutional liberals and in…the future Charles X, brother of Louis XVI. The author does not claim a work of history, but offers a study of civilisation, which also deserves to recall the immigration, is not and will never be a purely contemporary phenomenon, whatever the causes through time…
(MT)
*** Wallonie-Bruxelles et l'Union européenne. Cahier Wallonie-Bruxelles international. Espace Wallonie-Bruxelles (2 place Sainctelette, B-1080. Tel: (32-02) 4218211 - Fax: 4218787). September 2000. 93 pages.
This pamphlet shows the scope of relations between the EU and the francophone in Belgium. From the decision-making circles to the association spheres, the administrations to the economic and social sectors, all the actors of the Walloon-Brussels Community have integrated a European dimension into their strategy for development. The aims targeted through the Union policies are multiple: democratic peace in the respect for federalism, sustainable development, which passes through the respect for the environment and social policies, finally the exporting of Europe to the World. The beneficiaries are notably the students and professors via the Socrates, Erasmus and Leonardo programmes, but in a general manner everybody the European subsidies for regional development, research and structural aid.
*** Biblioteca della libertà. Centre Einaudi (4 via Ponza, I-10121 Torino. Tel: (39-11) 5591611 - Fax: 5591691 - Internet: http://www.centroeinaudi.it ). November-December 1999, N° 152, 113 pages. Annual subscription: ITL 90,000 (Italy) or ITL 100,000 (abroad).
In this issue, Christian Watrin analyses the "new third way", the social democratic parties, which are the bearers of neo-liberal ideas. Such as Great Britain where Tony Blair and his "new" Labour have continued the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher. For Christian Watrin, this Social Democratic path is a compromise where the ideas of the left remain at the fore, but it is clear that an alternative and coherent structure to contemporary liberal thought has not been found. Other themes broached: the single currency and the labour market, the reform of welfare in the southern countries and the main financial innovations.
*** Futuribles (55 rue de Varenne, F-75341 Paris Cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 536337701 - Fax: 42226554 - E-mail: revue@futuribles.com - Internet: http: //http://www.futuribles.com ). October 2000, N° 257, 112 pages, FF 78, EUR 11.89.
Charles de Granrut presents the main forecasts for employment in the United States towards 2008, carried out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It lets it be known that even in the case of a slowdown of growth, this country will maintain its present position with near full employment. With two observations: on the one hand, the development of numerous services is taking place in correlation with industry and the development of demand, on the other hand, the level of qualifications required in the labour market are generally rising. In the same issue Philippe Hugon looks at the recent forward-looking studies carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa. Another article talks of the "new growth" and the widespread belief that we on the eve of a new ascending Kondratiev, promising a new era of sustained prosperity. A development that Michel Godet considers with circumspection and even pessimism.
Reviews in short
*** La lettre d'Euskadi. Bayonne, September 2000, N°38. In summary: Unemployment falls to 12%, the Bilbao tramway "home made ", Basques and Castillians in family and the cafes of Bilbao. *** Innovation et Transfert Technologique. Brussels, September 2000, 5/00. In summary: "European companies summit: freedoms and responsibilities ", "Business angels: the missing link for the financing of innovation?", a statement by Commissioner Busquin according to which SMEs remain key actors. *** RDT info. European research magazine. Brussels, September 2000, N° 27. In summary: "What could be the consequences of climatic warming in Europe?", the sustainable keys of the city of tomorrow, the fight against AIDS, the map of women in LDC, "electronic security: no e-security without confidence", epidemiological investigation at an international level in order to rule on the dangers, real or supposed, in the use of GSMs.
*** INS: Chiffres-clés 2000. Overview of statistics in Belgium. Brussels, September 2000. This book brings us the latest statistics in terms of territory and environment, population, society, economy and finance, agriculture, industry, commercial services and transport. *** Liaisons sociales Europe. Paris, September 2000, N° 15. In summary: study of comparative law on parental leave, tour of the Europe of legislation, new package for employment, "When football rhymes with free movement", "Employment policy: handicap and sharing". *** Kibris. Cyprus, August 2000, vol. 8, N° 8. In summary: the embargo inflicted upon Turkish Cypriots, solution brought to the problems of water, rural life in the north of Cyprus, victory day celebrations".