*** A Europe of Regions and Cities. Strategies and Prospects for EU Enlargement. Committee of the Regions (92-102 rue Montoyer, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2822211 - Fax: 2822325 - Internet: http: //http://www.cor.eu.int/ ). 2000, 141 pages, EUR 7. ISBN 92-985-0004-2.
Each Member States, each European institution views the unprecedented enlargement which awaits the Union in relation to its own concerns and its particular responsibilities. This trend it clearly seen in this very useful study by the Committee of the Regions. As of the foreword, its President, the Belgian Jos Chabert, thus defends the following thesis: since a Europe with 28 members will not be able to become a "super Sate administered in a centralised manner" but that it will, on the contrary, have to apply the principal of subsidiarity even more so than in the past, "the role of the regional, municipal and local authorities as the level of government that is most in contact with the concerns of the people, must increasingly take on importance in a wider Union if we want the public to continue to understand Europe.
Preaching for his chapel is not banned, but it is still necessary to ensure that one does not … preach in the desert. This is what the Bureau of the Committee of the Regions worked to do in 1999 by launching a wide ranging multidisciplinary research project aimed at scientifically checking the presence, in the ten candidate countries said to be of the first wave (Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland , the Czech Republic and Slovenia), of active and effective regional structures. This publication gives an account of the results of this investigation lead by high level academics representing Europe as a whole.
The first part of the work presents the present state of the decentralisation/regionalisation in each of the ten countries concerned (with, of course, notably differences, stemming from history, between Cyprus and the five countries from Central and Eastern Europe). The barriers faced in terms of the reorganisation of territorial structures are analysed in detail while the works working towards this development are identified with precision, as are the competence available to the sub-national authorities. Then, in the second part, the attitudes and expectations that prevail, in the same six countries, at the national, regional and local level are enlightened through answers given by the political and scientific representatives of the three levels of governance to a standardised questionnaire. This state of progress of the decentralisation and the aspirations for this in countries that, under the democratic wing, discover this dimension is, obviously, of precious value. For the countries concerned, of course, but also for the Committee of the Regions which, one day, tomorrow, will have to open up to representatives from this countries to also be discovered. The last part of the report - and of the book - is not surprisingly dedicated to this aspect of things. It understands, in particular a thought process on the reforms that this body of the Union should well programme in order to show itself to be up to its ambitions.
Michel Theys
*** RANK BOLLEN, INES HARTWIG, PHEDON NICOLAIDES: EU Structural Funds beyond Agenda 2000. Reform and Implications for Current and Future Member States. European Institute for Public Administration (22 O. L. Vrouweplein, P. O. Box 1229, 6201 BE Maastricht, Netherlands. Internet: http: //http://www.eipa.nl ). 2000, 231 pages. ISBN 90-6779-142-3.
Throughout the enlargements, the European Union has adapted it cohesion policy and, in particular, the Structural funds. The scope pf the enlargements to come will be such that they will require more than a simple revision: the budgetary context makes an in-depth reform of the Community solidarity mechanisms inevitable. Also each Member States - present or to come - will have the ensure that the European and National resources are used in an optimal manner which, for many candidate States, would imply the creation of new regional administrations and the development of good management systems.
A challenge that will be everything but easy to take on. Drafted by three teachers from the European Institute in Maastricht, this work reviews the aims, instruments and procedures of Union cohesion policy with duly taking into account the development induced by the Agenda 2000. Through various case studies, the authors give indications on the best practices. In their conclusions, they examine how the future members should behave in view of broaching in the right conditions the accession negotiations in this field and to be able, in the long run, to effectively benefit from the structural programmes.
(LD)
*** Devolution in the Member States of the European Union - Le processus de décentralisation au sein des pays membres de l'Union européenne - Der Dezentralisierungsprozess in den Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union. Comité des Régions (see details above). 2000, EUR 7.
This file proposes, in fifteen tabled cards, a global view of the development and present state of the decentralisation process in each of the Union Member States. According to the Belgian Jos Chabert, President of the Committee of the Regions, this study will allow to better understand the complex forms of government in Europe at the regional and local level, while the "regions, cities and communes have become (…) pillars of the European system of government" and that "their importance in the building of a common Europe can only grow".
(MT)
*** VITTORIO MACCHITELLA (Edited by): Il futuro della politica europea del territorio come strumento di accompagnamento dello sviluppo - The future of European regional policy for a better support to economic development. Unioncamere (Sede di Bruxelles, 22 rue de l'Industrie, B-1040 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5122240 - Fax: 5124911 - E-mail: sede.bruxelles@unioncamere.be). 2000, 100 pages.
The Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, of industry and crafts and agriculture published the acts - in Italian, but with translations in French, or English - of the third seminar of the European research laboratory on the relations between enterprise and institutions, which was dedicated to the theme of the future of European policy of the territory as an instrument for the accompaniment of economic development (the two first seminars had been to the plan for a European constitution and enlargement. The activities of the Chamber of Commerce of thirty-three countries who have signed a charter in Cyprus as well as their power of influence are presented. The major developments in the econo-geographic map of Community Europe are also analysed, which enables experts to observe that production does not follow the traditional areas, but that the route will nevertheless still be long before reaching a more balanced competition between the regions and territories (despite pressure exercised on this level by the Committee of the Regions for whom the action is also studied). Finally the report looks at the new concept of the territorialisation of development and the global regions in Europe before considering the situation in an enlarged Union. It also insinuates that a problem in the allocation of resources available between State, region, local level and Europe will present itself in 2006, while the partnership between public and private sectors will progress.
(LD)
*** JEAN-DIDIER HACHE (Edited by): Quel statut pour les îles d'Europe ? - What status for Europe's Island's ? L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole-Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - E-mail: harmat@worldnet.fr). 2000, 427 pages, FF 240. ISBN 2-7384-9250-9.
This study is formed of monographs written by specialists - heads of insular policies for the most part - who review the situation and the constitutional arrangement that prevail in the Islands, those of the north (Aland islands, "micro State within Finland", Swedish Gotland, Danish Bronholm, Estonian Saaremaa, Shetland, Orkney, Wight, Man, Ponant islands…), those of the Mediterranean (Balearic, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the Greek islands, Malta) and those of the "ultra periphery" (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Azores, Madera, the Canaries), without ignoring the American and Japanese islands. During the last thirty years, the statute of the European islands as evolved, both inside the Member States as in their relations with the Union. The authors examine their constitutional statute, their legislative capacity, their degree of financial autonomy, the way in which they undertake their foreign relations, the problems of rationalisation they face. The opinions agree: the issue of the treatment to grant them within the EU is not resolved. They also questions the attitude to adopt in the face of the Continental European building process which remains, in their eyes, hardly sensitive to their quirks and the fragility of their condition.
(LD)
*** ISABELLE BOYDENS: Informatique, normes et temps. Etablissements Emile Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5129845). 1999, 571 pages, BEF 2,400. ISBN 2-8027-1268-3.
This book is the re-written version of the thesis presented by the author in view of the gaining of the title of doctor in philosophy and literature, direction Information and Documentation, at the Free University of Brussels. This concerns a multidisciplinary work that gathers together in a clever manner computing, history and statistics. This permanent interaction of several disciplines, which it is not common to bring together is illustrated by the preface that is written by four members of the jury - Belgian and French - and its broken into four perspectives: programmers, managers, computing and history, computing and epistemology. The author started from two realisations. Firstly, the databases are comparable to glasses in which we would barely see, but which we cannot remove to compare the "true" reality with that which we perceive through them. Then, the issue of time is fundamental as the database and the reality it apprehends are influenced reciprocally while transforming themselves at different speeds. After having studied from the inside, for several years, the functioning of the "LTAG" database of the Belgian National Security Office (three hundred fields and four million recordings per quarter), Isabelle Boydens shows how to optimise the flow of information and enrich the basic model, while minimising the management costs. A clever work reserved for specialists.
(LD)
*** CARLO REVELLI: Intelligence stratégique sur Internet. Comment développer efficacement des activités de veille et de recherche sur les réseaux. Editions Dunod (diffusion: Presses de Belgique, 117 bld. de l'Europe, B-1301 Wavre. Tel: (32-10) 420320 - Fax: 412024). 2000, 232 pages, BEF 1,346. ISBN 2-10-005154-7-1.
Prefaced by Joël de Rosnay, head of the Science and Industry college, this work wants - and is - to be a compass allowing to "navigate" on the Internet without (having too much) to find ones way in the dead ends of computing. Graduate in Economic Sciences from the University of Rome and researcher in information sciences within the Leonardo de Vinci University centre, Carlo Revelli initiates in a didactic and progressive manner to the Internet, by granting special attention to the intelligent agents. Accessible to the technophoebe as to the experimented "surfer". Entirely updated, this second edition is enriched with a CD-Rom, which enables to load intelligent agents.
(MT)
*** CATHERINE LEGER-JARNIOU: Réaliser l'étude de marché de son projet d'entreprise. Dunod publications (Paris. Internet: http: //wwwdunod.com - Distribution: Presses de Belgique (117 bld de l'Europe, B-1301 Wavre. Tel: (32-10) 420320 - Fax: 412024). "Entrepreneurs" collection. 2000, 244 pages, FF 128, BEF 883. ISBN 2-10-004486-9.
Head of the Entrepreneurial and Entrepreneurial core and Company creation subsidiary of the University of Paris-Dauphine, Catherine Léger-Jarniou explains, in this work, how to well prepare, carry out and exploit market studies necessary before any company creation. The different techniques she details (creativity, maintenance and investigation) adapt to all types of projects. The author also outlines in detail the strategic choice of launching. Finally the work proposes an address book and a glossary of the main terms used.
(MT)
*** FRANK OSTROFF: L'Entreprise Horizontale. L'entreprise du futur et sa proposition de valeur. Dunod publications (see details above). 2000, 247 pages, BEF 1,166. ISBN 2-10-004820-1.
Translated from American, this work presents the horizontal company, concept invented by Frank Ostroff who is head of the organisational unit of human resources advisory services for Deloitte & Touche. For him, this type of transversal organisation integrates recent concepts of performance optimisation and leads the company head-on into the 21st Century. After having explained what is the horizontal company (as opposed to vertical structures), the author indicates how it works and can be established.
(MT)
*** BENEDICTE GAUTIER, MARIE-ODILE VERVISCH: Le manager coach. Dunod publications. 2000, 190 pages, FF 138, BEF 952. ISBN 2-10-004718-3.
This book is addressed to managers looking for better framework and motivations practices for their personnel. Strong from their experiences as consultants in the field of vocational training, Bénédicte Gautier and Marie-Odile Vervisch describe the main elements of the "coaching method" by distinguishing individual coaching and team coaching.
*** Storia Politica Società. Quaderni di Scienze Umane. Université Populaire de Turin (12 via Principe Amedeo, Turin). June 2000, N° 1, 137 pages.
In this first issue, Andrea Mignone starts by reviewing European policies throughout history before presenting a comparative policy analysis of political authorities and of the decision-making process in the Union. In her eyes, it is a necessary instrument in this time of "Big Bang". For his part, Marco Bontempi proposes a reflection on values and political socialisation, so that each citizen may find themselves in a relationship of identification/recognition with their society. This is a need that he considers particularly necessary in a society living in a time of transition towards modernity. Other themes on society broached are: University and the challenges of the third millennium. To the question of knowing how to improve the higher education system in Italy, the review feels that this should go through the creation of instruments allowing for participation in a European higher education area. Other themes broached: proposal for a special status for Ligurie, immigration and religious problems, cognitive and identity development, power and language, the Turin Fabian society.
*** Futuribles. Futuribles Sarl (55 rue de Varenne, F-75341 Paris cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 - Fax: 42226554 - E-mail: revue@futuribles.com - Internet: http://www.futuribles.com ). November 2000, N° 258, 104 pages, FF 83, EUR 12.65. Annual subscription: FF 740, EUR 112.81.
This forward looking review by Hugues de Jouvenel looks more specifically at, in this issue, the way that the French perception of the future has changed over time. Jacques Antoine and Marie-Thérèse Antoine-Paille show the extent to which points of view vary in relation to the conjuncture. They conclude that the optimism of the French now mainly depends on the economy and ecology, this trend being called to grow. Other themes broached: "rebuild the economy", the Indian transition, "freedom and development" (in the light of the last book by Amartya Sen, 1998 Noble prize for economics) and the return of Star Wars, not forgetting the usual sections.
*** Echos de l'Europe. Office for the Official Publications of the European Communities (L-2985, Luxembourg). December 2000, N° 6, 12 pages.
This publication presents the draft Directive relating to the professional pensions institutions that have just been advanced by the Commission in view of protecting the right of future pensioners. The proposal also aims to guarantee that pensions institutions benefit from the independence required to be able to develop an effective policy instrument. The two principals around which this draft Directive is articulated are analysed: the first sets a double objective of financial security and accessibility; the second is that of the respect for the prerogatives of the Member States in terms of social protection and starting, with pension schemes (but for the European Commission, a Community framework reinforcing the security and efficiency of the pensions institutions would be an asset for the Member States). Other articles are dedicated to the Agenda 2000, regional aid in favour of Luxembourg, the new dynamic in view of enlargements, the Cotonou agreements with the ACP States and the municipal elections in Kosovo.
*** La lettre d'information. Ministère de la Culture et de la communication (DIC, 3 rue de Valois, F-75042 Paris cedex 01. Fax: (33-1) 40158172 - Internet: http: //http://www.culture.gouv.fr ). December 2000, N° 76, 16 pages.
This letter draws-up an assessment of the French Presidency in the field of culture and audiovisual. It places particular emphasis on the adoption of the MEDA+ programme, but also on the resolutions adopted by the Council concerning architectural quality, the setting of book prices and national aid to film and audiovisual. The dossier is dedicated to systems of collective services made public by the Jospin government.
Reviews in short
*** Septentrion. Art, letters and culture from Flanders and the Netherlands. December 2000, N° 4. In summary: the stations in Flanders, differences in countryside in the North and South of the low countries, an old Gent neighbourhood, Saint Nicolas in Flanders and the Netherlands… *** La lettre d'Euskadi. Information monthly on the Basque autonomous community. December 2000, N° 41, FF 20. In summary: the way in which Bilbao equips itself in terms of transports, public support for companies… *** La voix des régions. Quarterly letter of the Committee of the Regions. November/December 2000, N° 1. In summary: Jos Chabert gives the point of view of the Committee of the Regions on EU institutional reform, new forms of governance of which Europe is the bearer, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, "The regions of Europe hold the key to a successful enlargement".