*** HELEN WALLACE, WILLIAM WALLACE (Edited by): Policy-Making in the European Union. Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, United Kingdom. Tel: (44-1865) 556767 - Internet: http://www.oup.com ). "The New European Union Series" collection. 2000, 610 pages, GBP 17.99. ISBN 0-19-878242-X.
This work is impressive by its quality and scope. That a specialist such as Yves Mény, Director at the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute, does not hesitate to present as a "must have" is proof of this. Its longevity is further proof of this. It first edition saw the light of day in… 1977. Also after those of 1983 and 1996, the work is in its third revision, and its fourth edition. Though can we talk of "revision" for what appears, each time, to be a reconstruction of the edifice on the basis of plans ceaselessly redrawn and completed by the architects of the Union? Each time, the scope of vision widens. To the point of authorising Prof. Ernst B. Hans (University of California) to assert that there "does not exist any more satisfying introduction to the life of the European Union" and to admit: "I insist that my students use it"…
The first part is entirely the work of Helen Wallace, Jean Monnet Professor of Contemporary European Studies and co-Director of the Sussex European Institute. In it she presents the institutions, the standard, but also the new "quasi-autonomous agencies" that are the European Central Bank and Europol. She also identifies five variations on the European political process, which she explains oscillate like a pendulum between the reasons of the State and the need for cooperation. Finally she briefly describes the theories and the analytical approaches presently used to understand the integration process.
The second part is dedicated, as for it, to the study - insightful! - of fifteen dossiers entering into the scope of activity of the Union. "Old" such as the internal market, common agricultural policy, those of competition, external trade, North-South relations, EMU, ESDP and the Community budget. Also more recent ones such as concerns in terms of the environment, the social dimension, justice and home affairs, enlargement and even the… "Banana system". Finally, new ones with the common fisheries policy and the common approaches that are drawn in terms of biotechnology. Nineteen experts from six of the fifteen Member States Many fields are explored with a very high degree of precision by.
Michel Theys
*** 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 - Internet: http://www.cife.org ). Autumn 2000, N° 318, 88 pages, FF 60. Annual subscription: FF 185.
Why emphasis this autumn issue of L'Europe en formation ? Why not have waited for the next which, in February, will be entirely dedicated to the fertile thought and permanent militant action in favour of federalism and the unification of Europe by Alexandre Marc, founder of the International Centre for European Training in Nice and of the review? In reality, in the spirit of the author of these lines, each issue of L'Europe en formation deserves attention.
This time, however, the act is not fully disinterested. Or to put it differently, he aims to draw attention to the fact that the European warriors are not isolated, whatever their point of departure and the intellectual paths they take. The editorial signed by the editorial team of the review is dedicated to the "constitutional challenge" that is to be taken on by the Union. He wrote before the European Council in Nice and is thus, on certain points, is overtaken by facts. But overall, how can you not find similarities and obvious points of convergence with the analysis developed these last days by Ferdinando Riccardi? Be your own judge: (…) as was well spotted by the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, in a declaration last September, we must avoid the confusion of issues. The constitutional approach must prolong it by emphasising the Community method, which strengthens the small countries against the attempts at directing. It is also what Mr Romano Prodi said, in another form, when speaking in Strasbourg, on 3 October, to the European parliamentarians, when he rose against the Chiracian idea of a pioneer group flanked by a secretariat. As with Jacques Delores finally, we are fundamentally attached (…) to the notions of subsidiary and federation. It is our reason for being. As he, we could not admit that a constitutional process serves as a pretext to a backward return to intergovernmental practices, to the detriment of the existing Community order." Lines that tend to demonstrate that the fight of "idealist" Europeans and the "realist" Europeans are now joined. Which is reassuring now that the debate on the finalities of Europe being.
For the remainder, let us note that Prof. Ferdinand Kinsky denounces, in this issue, the "counter-truths of the sovereignty ideology" which persists in France, from Charles Pasqua to Jean-Pierre Chevènement. This intellectual ideal judges that "sovereignty" could play a negative part in case of a serious economic crisis, recalling with regard to this, "without wanting to compare the "sovereigntists" of today with Hitler, which the latter and his Nazi party where reduced to an apparently negligibly percentage (around 3%) on the eve of the economic crisis. Better to remember it, effectively. For his part Prof. Christian Anglade (University of Essex) draws, in a clean, but constructive manner, the assessment and prospects for the Community aid for development policy, while his colleague Pierre Wathelet (University of Brussels) wonders why Articles 96 and 97 are not used by the Commission to eliminate the distortions to competition, which the Member States maintain in the single market. Notably in the filed of taxation.
(MT)
*** Futuribles. Futuribles Sarl 2000 (55 rue de Varenne, F-75341 Paris cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 - Fax: 42226554 - E-mail: revue@futuribles.com - Internet: http: //http://www.futuribles.com ). December 2000, N° 259, 111 pages, FF 78, EUR 11.89. ISBN 2-84387-259-6.
Very European, this last issue of the previous millennium. An early warning sign in the head of a forward looking review? Maybe, but not for sure. The general tone is pessimism. Due to a "Europe a la carte", summarises Hugues de Jouvenel in his editorial. Two articles by Commission civil servants - which express, - of course, personally - paint a difficult situation. Nice did not wrong them. "The European institutions in a dead-end?" Thus is the title of the study by Yves Bertoncini who outlines, among others, that if the States try to maintain one Commissioner, it is because the Commission has the monopoly on initiative and its prerogatives in terms of competition. "A gathered or integrated Europe?", wonders, for his part, Jean-François Drevet who, in order to avoid a dilution of the Community, calls for the creation of a hard core - "the Cartages Europe" of the founding countries, for the most part - capable of assuming a leading role. Furthermore, Michel Drancourt cries over his broken dream of Europe while Prof. Jean-Jacques Salomon discerns in a confederate Europe what could be the "Greece of modern times".
(MT)
*** PASCAL DELWIT, JEAN-MICHEL DE WAELE (Edited by): Le mode de scrutin fait-il l'élection? University of Brussels publications (26 av. Paul Héger, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503799 - Fax: 6503794 - E-mail: EDITIONS@admin.ulb.ac.be - Internet: http: //http://www.ulb. ac.be/ulb/editions/). "Sociologie politique" collection. 2000, 214 pages, BEF 650, FF 120. ISBN 2-8004-1235-6.
Fruit of a colloquium organised by the Research Centre on Political Life from the Brussels Free University in April 1999, this work discusses the state of the main method of voting used in Europe, namely - to summarise - the voting methods said majority, the proportional voting methods and the mixed voting methods. The core issue, which crosses this book, gave it its name: to what extent does the voting method "make" the election? This problem is at the heart of various contributions through the raising of the situation in Western and Central Europe or in a transnational dimension, namely the elections for the European Parliament. With regard to this, Olivier Costa wonders what lessons to draw from the lack of harmonisation in voting methods for the European elections. For this researcher from the CNRS, it is a source of manifest difficulties, but the establishment of a single voting method cannot be "understood as a miracle remedy to the absence of European political life". On the contrary, the introduction of a uniform and regional voting method could have "perverse effects" by contributing to "paradoxically increasing the citizens defiance towards the European Parliament, unless it leads to excluding the small parties from the Parliament." The second part of the work is fully centred on the case of Belgium.
(MT)
*** OLIVIER LANOTTE, CLAUDE ROOSENS, CATY CLEMENT (Edited by): La Belgique et l'Afrique centrale. De 1960 à nos jours. GRIP (33 rue Van Hoorde, B-1030 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2418420 - Fax: 2451933 - E-mail: admi@grip.org - Internet: http://www.grip.org ) and Complexe publications (24 rue de Bosnie, B-1060 Brussels). "Les livres du GRIP" collection, N° 243-245. 2000, 380 pages. ISBN 2-87027-831-4.
Made under the direction of three researchers from the Political Sciences and International Relations Unit of the Catholic University of Louvain, this research study casts light on the policy that was followed by Belgium towards its former colonies - Congo-Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi - during the last forty years. These countries have written a few pages of a very turbulent history since their independence: scission of Katanga, major Belgo-Congo crisis, genocide in Rwanda, fall of Mobutu, numerous political assassinations (that of President Kabila having occurred, recently, perpetuates this tradition)… It is the relations of Brussels with the political circles of these countries and other forces such as the Universities and Church that are analysed in detail. Though the authors go further: they try to discern the future prospects at the time when ther begins a re-launching of relations between Belgium and Central Africa. In its preface, the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs Louis Michel indicates wanting to develop "an engaged and objective policy of trade and cooperation, modern and adult", and underlines that "the Belgian expertise in terms of Central Africa" resisted time and is being renewed in the present generation. The former Ministers for Foreign Affairs Mark Eyskens signs, him, a postface in which he calls in favour of the right for humanitarian intolerance and for all of the measures that should mark the end of the Belgian policy of the abandonment of Africa and that of Franco-British rivalry.
(LD)
*** LUC REYCHLER, THANIA PAFFENHOLZ (Edited by): Construire la paix sur le terrain. Mode d'emploi. GRIP et Editions Complexe (see details above). "Les livres du GRIP" collection, N° 246-248. 2000, 421 pages. ISBN 2-87027-796-2.
Finally a book dedicated to actors of peace and not warriors and their battles! Built around three axes - "the preparation of the ground", "the work on the ground", "how to survive there?" -, this book first presents the concepts and instruments acting for a sustainable peace. The second part concentrates on six specific activities: mediation, monitoring of human rights and democratic transition, cooperation for development, the training of local actors, reconciliation and demobilisation. In the last part are broached the problems faced on the ground (anguish, moral dilemmas…). A true guide to peace.
(MT)
*** IVA FRKIC: La structure et le fonctionnement du modèle américain de protection sanitaire: Food and Drug Administration. Notre Europe (44 rue Notre-Dame des Victoires, F-75002 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53009440 - Fax: 53009444 - E-mail: notreeurope@notre-europe.asso.fr - Internet: http: //http://www.notre-europe.asso.fr ). 2000, 86 pages.
Engaged in a general thought process on the regulation of risks in contemporary societies, the Study and Research group lead by Jacques Delors considered it useful, at the time when the Commission Presided by Romano Prodi proposed to create a European Food Safety Authority, to better understand the American Food and Drug Administration, which could act as a model for it. He asked a young intern, Croatian student at the Grinnell College of Ohio, to carry out a study into the organisation, the powers and the workings of this powerful Federal agency. This work of scientific youth bristles with information on this little studied subject in Europe, and in particular in French. An excellent basis for necessary debates to come…
(GC)
*** JEAN BIZET: Sécurité alimentaire: le codex alimentaire. Senate delegation to the European Union (Paris). "Les rapport du Sénat" collection, N° 450. 2000, 48 pages, FF 25, EUR 3.81. ISBN 2-11-102380-9.
This report by the French Senator Jean Bizet presents the Codex alimentarius Committee which, created at the beginning of the 1960s under the auspices of the FAO and the WHO, is responsible for drafting standards for food products. Standards that, since the creation of the WHO in 1994, have a reference value for checking if a food safety measure does not constitute an unjustified barrier to international trade. The report studies the way in which the European Union is positioned compared to this body, which now appears, in the agri-food field, as one of the main junctions where must be conciliated the imperative of food safety and the attempts to liberalise trade. The author feels that the efforts deployed by the EU for the Codex to apply the precautionary principal must be pursued.
(LD)
*** 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). Bi-monthly, N°4/5, 2001. Annual subscription: ITL 120,000 (Italy) or ITL 180,000 (abroad).
For Carlo Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic, the 21st Century could be that of the Europe after two centuries of fractious wars. Paying homage to the determination shown, since Adenauer, by the German post-war governments that lead to the German reunification, he asserts that the Italian German friendship forms a pillar of the European Union. For his part, Ines Ciolli questions the way in which to govern Europe. Looking at tax competition, Alessandro di Battista feels, as for him, that economic globalisation risks leading to three forms of dumping: social, environmental and fiscal, the latter being particularly dangerous. For his part Prof. Mario Telo (ULB) looks at the structural reform of the European economy that has become necessary fifty years after the Schuman declaration and less than twelve months away from the introduction of the single currency. On the legal level, Andrea Manzella puts forward the idea that the Charter of Fundamental Rights will announce the recognition of the constitutional nature of the Union. Other articles also cover the ESDP and various aspects of defence policy.
*** Comunidad Europea. Aranzadi editorial (Carretera de Aoiz, Km. 3,5 E-31486 Elcano (Navarra) - Tel: (34-902) 444144 - Fax: (34-948) 297200/330845). December 2000, N° 12, 90 pages.
In summary: the month of November in Brussels seen by Madridians, the re-election of Rodriguez Iglésias to the position of President of the Court of Justice, the proposal for the simplification of tax standards put forward by the Commission and the principles of the future Community tax harmonisation, the national electrical control bodies who work in the framework of the Internal Market, external relations and trade policies, ecological labelling, the legislation and jurisprudence in terms of the monitoring of mergers, the latest events of the economic and monetary Union, the work of the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia, the family grouping…
*** Current SME. European Commission (Office for the Official Publications of the European Communities, L-2985 Luxembourg). December 2000.
The core of this leaflet is dedicated to the involvement of women in SMEs, notably with an interview with the Dutch European parliamentarian Elly Plooij and a presentation of the programme aiming to stimulate the participation of women that was launched in the framework of the 5th Framework Research Programme. The SME helpdesk created by the DG Research is also the object of a presentation.
*** Actualité des Services Publics en Europe. Lettre des Entreprises Européennes de Réseaux. Société ASPE Europe (36 rue Laborde, F-75008 Paris. Fax: (33-1) 43876891 - E-mail: aspe@club-internet.fr). Décembre 2000, n° 73, 12 p..
In summary: a meeting with Gérard Fuchs, Vice-President of the National Assembly Delegation to the EU, which feels that it necessary to "widen the obligations of public service to new services", the interoperability Directive which is a "new instrument for rail liberalisation", the Nice European Council which has formed a "marathon to mitigated rules".
*** Le Monde des Droits de l'Homme (BP 30-B-1380 Lasne, Belgium. Tel: (32-2) 6332935 - Fax: 6333675). January-February 2001, N° 53, 32 pages, BEF 120, FF 25, CHF 7. Subscription: BEF 550, FF 120, CHF 35.
This six monthly includes a harsh editorial for the exiting Presidency of the EU Council, the Nice Summit having been "only an exercise by the French State aiming to maintain equality between France and Germany". Worse, "the European peoples from the Atlantic to Russia" have been treated "like Napoleonic colonies". From then, "the horizon of all the democratic battles of the European people is defined". To also be read, the articles in favour of a European support for the United Nations and on the condemnation of Israel by the UN.
*** La Lettre. International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (17 passage de la Main d'Or, F-75011 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43552518 - Fax: 43551880 - E-mail: fidh@fidh.org - Internet: http: //http://www.fidh. org). December 2000-January 2001, N° 44. Annual subscription: FF 300, EUR 45.73.
In summary: EU/Turkey relations one year after Helsinki, the situation in Congo Brazzaville and in Tunisia, "Finding the disappeared from the camps" from the former USSR and the four themes of the 34th Congress of the FIDH ("Globalisation, Economic and Social Exclusion", "Exclusion, Racism and Cultural Pluralism", "Exclusion and Women's Rights", "The European Social Charter and its Protocol: a model to follow?").