*** PAUL MAGNETTE: L'Europe, l'Etat et la démocratie. Le Souverain apprivoisé. Editions Complexe (24 rue de Bosnie, B-1060 Brussels. E-mail: complexe.eco@wanadoo.fr). "Etudes européennes" collection. 2000, 264 pages, BEF 898, FF 139. ISBN 2-87027-814-4.
A "substantial contribution to the new era of studies and public debates concerning the political building process of the European Union"… The elegant commentary by Prof. Mario Telò, Director of the "European studies" collection, is neither over detailed nor of circumstantial: this new work by Paul Magnette stands among the - rare - unavoidable for those who want to understand European integration, his aliases ad its depths! Responsible for research at the FNRS and lecturer in political sciences at the Free University of Brussels, the author scientifically casts the foundations in the soil of the ideas received and the slogans. He starts from the hypothesis that the State, in abandoning Europe, has paradoxically won in strength, but that Europe has at the same time "supplied the sovereign", firmed up the Member States by depriving them of the most aggressive aspects of their sovereignty. This hypothesis, he has checked, firstly, by carrying out a detailed rereading of the founding moment of the European building process, these years when the creation of a political federation revealed itself to be impossible and when the founding father, to circumvent the obstacle, turned towards the Community model. Secondly, he examines the major balances that form the logic of the European Union.
The functions granted to the Court of Justice in Luxembourg give them the power of a "government of judges" that imposes the will of the States? The power conferred to the supranational technocracy squashes that of the governments and, starting, they affect the national democracies? Federalism leans towards the circumscribe the competence of the States, to impose a European building process that reduces them to the statute of residual powers? These are the main questions that Magnette broaches in this part, bringing nuance and reassuring answers… for the States. The third part, he examines the major balancers that form the logic of the European Union.
The third part is no doubt the most important or, at least, the most topical: the author dedicates it to the problems - linked - of legitimacy and democracy in the EU by starting his reflection with this observation: "supplying the sovereign, it is maybe also, in the European societies where the people are reputed sovereign, noting popular will", the movements of the humour of public opinion being able to be understood, in this context, as the answer of the shepherd to his flock of Europe… A problem with high stakes that Paul Magnette handles with precision and the talent of the academic, bringing to his questions answers full of finesse and nuance. A delicate exercise that leads him, in the end, to optimism, he who concludes: "By organising the civilised confrontation of passions and national interests, Europe may today revitalise the nations and democracy.
Michel Theys
*** OLOF PETERSSON: Swedish debate on Europe. Notre Europe (44 rue Notre-Dame des Victoires, F-75002 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53009440/41 - Fax: 53009444 - E-mail: notreeurope@notre-europe.asso.fr - Internet: http: //http://www.notre-europe.asso.fr ). "Etudes et Recherches" collection, N° 12. 2000, 32 pages.
Available both in French, English and Swedish, this new study presented by the Notre Europe Study and Research group falls at the right time since the first Swedish Presidency of the EU Council will start in a few days. However, as is revealed by Jacques Delors in his foreword, Sweden represents, for the European opinion, an "enigma, both in its model of social participation democracy if envied seems to lead it, as with pleasure, to a culture of systematic peripheralism" within the Union. What is reserved for us, from now, by this Presidency? Former Professor of political sciences at the University of Uppsala and presently Director of research at the Economy and society group, Olof Petersson offers, with this study, paths and answers. He starts by explaining in detail the paradoxes of the Swedish political debate: militancy for the single market and its enlargement, but reticence with regards to common regulations, in contradiction with its own national model, emphasis placed on democratic transparency, but choices of the not opaque European model of governance: the intergovernmental of preference to the Community method; strong reticence with regards the latter (while it is, recalls Jacques Delors, "by principal the most respectful of the interests of the small countries"); tradition of in depth democratic debate… though not for European issues. These contradictions, Olof Petersson searches for their roots in the specific method of functioning of Swedish democracy (permanent back and forth between public opinion and the political leaders), who, summarises the former President of the Commission, "has not been able to adapt to issues that arise from the integration of Sweden into the EU, then EMU, to the price of a sustained traumatism". The founder of Notre Europe retains three considerations from this meticulous auscultation. First, the Swedish reticence towards a deepening of the political Union is "eminently respectable" since it translates the concerns to maintain an incomparable experience of participative democracy and social cohesion". Then, the debate of membership to the EU (and to EMU) "forms one of the rare failures of democracy Swedish style in that it brings out a cleavage between the people and the political elites" (with everywhere in Europe"). Finally, this failure brings out a "deeper crisis of the Swedish model which, confronted to globalisation, and the search for a renovated form of the rule of law". In the eyes of the former Commission President, this last point is unchallengeable in that it is positive to the extent that political Europe thus appears "both as a demonstration and possibly overcoming the malaise that it is not the cause of". This study, can from there conclude Jacques Delors, "seem to show me that the Swedish Presidency of the EU s an opportunity, both for Europe - which can gain from a unequal level of democratic and social demands - and for Sweden, which can find in the exercising of its political responsibilities the opportunity to overcome in a positive manner the issues left hanging by the incomplete referendum>". So long as it is true!
(MT)
*** CRISTIANO ZAGARI: L'Europa e l'era nomade. Berlino 1989: i perchè di una Costituzione Europea. Gangemi Editore (4 Piazza San Pantaleo 4, Roma). 2000, 64 pages. ITL 15 000, EUR 7.75. ISBN 88-492-0061-7.
The author of this realisation of the "nomad State" in which Europe finds itself after a phase" essentially static", an "absolute nomadism where people and frustrations circulate normally", asserts that in this "Nomad era, everyone must be actors in the fore" if we want to achieve the equation "Democracy equals Europe". Today more than ever, the Europe wants by the founding fathers needs the support of civil society, feels Mr Zagari son of Mario Zagari (who was, in Italy, among the Europeans of the first hour) and the Deputy Secretary General of the European Movement in Italy. As, he notes, today, "the Europeanism does not come alone", as is shown by the fall of people such as Mitterrand and Kohl or as of Berlin, and that the European people" have had to wait less than ten years to realise, to their detriment, what it means to refuse the logic of the nomad era". The "first virtue of the nomad, is to be welcoming with the stranger", also notes Christiano Zagari for whom, thus, "our capital and our commercial strategies cannot look down on the development of LDCs" and for whom Europe must, for reasons both ethical and material, fill the "void left by the misguided strategies of the development of " institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.
(MG)
*** REMY POIGNAULT, FRANCOISE LECOCQ, ODILE WATTEL DE CROIZANT (Edited by): D'Europe à l'Europe. Mythe et identité du XIXème siècle à nos jours. Editions du Centre de Recherches A. Piganiol (3 rue des Tanneurs, F-37041 Tours Cedex). 2000, 301 pages, FF 390. ISBN 2-900479-12-6.
The "Acts" follow us, notably the founding mythological act of Zeus metamorphoses into a bull that removes the Phoenician princess Europe… After a first international colloquium held in 1997 in the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris on "the myth of the Europe of Antiquity in the 18th Century" (European Library 22-23/6/1998), a second was organised, in the autumn of 1999, at the University of Caen. The book reproduces the twenty contributions that, abundantly illustrated, present the extremely varied evocations (literary, musical and, of course, iconographic) of the myth of Europe. This old myth resurrects in our daily life: stamps, currency and medals, caricatures, scenic games… A "shrink" even dealt with the "Myth of the rapt of Europe in the feminine sexuality". Why not? Following the next colloquium organised by the international youth association "from Europe to Europe" which is honoured by the double patronage of UNESCO and the European Commission.
(J-RR)
*** MARIE-HELENE AUBERT: Les OGM: pour quoi faire? National Assembly (Kiosque de l'Assemblée nationale, 4 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Internet: http: //assemblee-nationale.fr). "Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale" collection, N° 2538. 2000, 171 pages, FF 40, EUR 6.10. ISBN 2-11-109319-X.
Genetically modified organisms are submitted, at the European level, to checks prior to research and marketing. This Community provision is seen as "one of the first enforcement of the precautionary principal", observers the French MP Marie-Hélène Aubert immediately adding that it has not for as much appeased the fears of public opinion. From where this report from the Delegation for the European Union, drafted for the occasion of the revision of the Directive relating to the voluntary dissemination of GMOs in the environment. An exercise that Europe as broached, according to it "ripped between the desire to encourage the development of biotechnologies on its territory and the concern to apply the precautionary principal". Its report aims to shed light on the stakes of this revision. It appreciates the advantages and the inconveniences of GMO before presenting the dangers not to be underestimated, the socio-economic stakes, the Community framework and the principals to be observed. It recommends a moratorium on authorisations for the marketing as such, among others, their labelling and the responsibilities of the various actors involved that have not been clarified.
(LD)
*** JEAN-PHILIPPE CHENAUX: Transplantation d'organes: sauver des vies. Histoire, coûts, résultats, éthique, législations, menaces centralisatrices. Editions du Centre Patronal (2 route du Lac, 1094 Paudex, Case postale 1215, CH-1001 Lausanne. Tel: (41-021) 7963300 - Fax: 7963382 - E-mail: jpchenaux@centrepatronal.ch). "Etudes & Enquêtes" collection, N° 28. 2000, 195 pages, FS 22. ISBN 2-940089-09-4.
The medicine of organ transplants enables to save human lives; it is, in certain cases, the therapy of last resort. This recent medical discipline records good results in Switzerland. Edited by a journalist, this book discusses the way in which they have developed in this country since its beginnings and considers the ethical problems that arise, as well as its consequences on the functioning of the body and at the psychological level. However, the core of the work covers its organisation under the legislative angle, the author calling for the maintaining of the present federal approach.
(LD)
*** JEAN-MARIE WAREGNE: L'Organisation mondiale du commerce et le différend du boeuf aux hormones. Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (35 rue du Congrès, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2181866). "Courrier hebdomadaire" collection. 1999, N° 1658-1659, 82 pages, BEF 500. Subscription: BEF 9,500.
The author of this book who reveals in detail the rules of the functioning of the World Trade Organisation (European Library last 26/27 June), Jean-Marie Warêgne, advisor since the years of the Belgian Permanent Mission to Geneva, gives an account with the same detail and same talent of teacher, in this Weekly Courrier of the CRISP, of the hormone beef dispute that opposes the United States and the European Union, as well as the way in which the WTO, dealt with the case. It is in 1989 that the EU had banned the use of natural and synthetic hormones aimed at improving the growth of beef cattle. In 1995 the United States referred to the dispute settlement body in the WTO, which established that the EU was not in accordance with the agreements enforced. The EU persists and signs of are in the adopting of a wait and see attitude that provides it with retaliations, namely customs duties of 100% on a series of products exported by the member countries of the Union. These are stages in the WTO decision-making process that Jean-Marie Warêgne provides an account in minute detail, covering one after the other the history of the problem and outlines the problem ) incriminated measures, substances in question, Codex Alimentarius, and precedents), the argumentation of the parties the "realisations" of the special group formed by the WTO, the appeal against the decision by the EU, finally the wait and see attitude of the later and the referral to arbitration. A legal saga behind which can be seen stakes such as the war waged by the two great economic blocks, the different views of consumer protection and the issue of the role of science in international trade relations. In his conclusions, the author pertinently wonders what place will be given for the precautionary principal in international trade and reveals, with… impertinence, that the EU has "some difficulties in justifying the authorised use of the same substances by its Member States for other types of live stock, notably, for pig farming", and of substances considered dangerous for human heath… by the United States.
(MT)
*** Notabene. Lettre d'information de l'Observatoire social européen (13 rue Paul Emile Janson, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5371971 - Fax: 5392808 - E-mail: ose.eur@skynet.be - Internet: http: //http://www.ose.be ). 2000, N° 117, 12 pages. Annual subscription: BEF 800.
Not only the Treaty of Nice "dedicates even more to de facto intergovernmentalism, but it avoids among others to carefully answer the question of the future solidarity" which the coming enlargements will make inevitable. For the editor of the information letter from the European Social Monitoring Centre, the "surrealist" debates to which took part over the weighting of votes in the Council and the decisions that arose are linked to the desire of certain Member Sates to prevent, in the future, an alliance between the countries of the present cohesion and the new Member states aiming to gain the continuation of financial transfers. Other issues broached: the access to health care and the possible questioning of the national social protection systems.
*** Eipascope. Institut Européen d'Administration publique (P.O. Box 1229, 6001 BE Maastricht, Netherlands. Tel: (31-43) 3296222 - Fax: 3296296 - Internet: http: //http://www.eipa.nl ). 2000, N° 2, 55 p.
Available on the Internet, this bulleting from the European Institute for Public Administration opens on a word of thanks that Henning Christophersen, President of the Administrative Council, gives to Isabel Corte-Real who, last 1 May, ceded the seat of Director General of the IEAP to Professor Gerard Druesne. Doctor Jean-Michel Eymery then carries out a detailed analysis of the "French style administrative bodies", this system is characterised, according to him, by a sublime dialectic of rigidities and suppleness. Other themes that are broached in this issue: the consequences of enlargement in the European Union in terms of levels of intermediary governance, the relaunch of European defence policy, an assessment of the way in which the regions and their administrations prepare for the Euro and the role of Committees in the European decision-making-process.
*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION: European Union enlargement. A historic opportunity. Directorate General Enlargement (170 rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2991444 - Fax: 2991777 - Internet: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement). 2000, 47 pages.
Introduced by Commissioner Günter Verheugen who feels that enlargement must be considered as a promise of greater prosperity and stability, this brochure presents in the summarises and very clear manner the path already covered since the requests for accession, the Association Agreements and the pre-accession strategy. Statistical data enables to see where they candidate countries are positioned.
*** Europa Info. SEU Servizio Europa (51 via Fontivegge, I-06124 Perugia. Tel: (39-075) 5045600 - Fax: 5045602 - E-mail: info@seu.it - Internet: http://www.seu.it ). October 2000, N° 4, 64 pages.
This review dedicates, in this issue, a dossier to Structural funds and their implications in Umbria. Is also includes articles on labelling of meat, new systems for apprenticeship training, local development and the presence of Umbria in Brussels.
*** Bulletin européen. Edizioni Nagard (9 via Larga, I-20122 Milano. Tel: (39-02) 58371400 - Fax: 58304790). August-September 2000, N° 603-604, 24 pages.
This issue of the tribune founded by Constantin Dragan looks at the Millennium Summit (the UN "between the nobility of the principals and the operational stalemate") with, among others, the transcription of a meeting with the Secretary General Kofi Annan, "the Christianity and the youths on the eve of the third millennium" and a global strategy against the trafficking in human beings. Also to be noted a reflection of the Milan European Federalist Movement on the debate between the partisans of federalism and the calls for a EU Constitution.
*** Carrefour de l'Economie Ministère des Affaires économiques (6 rue de l'Industrie, B-1000 Brussels. Fax: (32-2) 5134657 - E-mail: edwin.van.wesemael@mineco.fgov.be). 2000, N° 11-12A, 8 pages.
Once more, it is the role of the rule of origin in international trade that is presented in this letter, the emphasis being placed, this time, on the notions that enable to understand the preferential rules of origin. Thus are reviews the notions such as "the accumulation of origin", "bilateral accumulating", "diagonal accumulation", "total accumulation" "rules of tolerance", "Drawback", the "principal of territoriality"…
*** Forces. Société d'édition de la revue Forces (500 rue Sherbrooke ouest, Bureau 450, Montréal, Québec H3A3C6, Canada. Tel: (514) 2867600 - Fax: 2862250 - E-mail: dferland@abonnement.qc.ca). 2000,N° 127, 139 pages.
This review of economic, social and cultural documentation of Quebec dedicates, in this issue, a dossier to a savings and investment bank which, in 35 years, but especially during the last decade, has become a financial power, its portfolio totals some USD 105 billion.