*** Cahiers de droit européen. Etablissements Emile Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5129845 - Fax: 5117202). 2000, N° 5-6, 171 pages, 2,050 BEF, 50.82 Euro. Subscription: 5,700 BEF, 141.30 Euro.
The value of this Cahiers de droit européen no longer requires proof. This edition does not move away from this, it which offers, in succession, pointed comments on the specificity of the appeal, a contribution dedicated to maternity law in the light of the principal of non-discrimination ("Towards a clarification?", wonders Annick Masselot, from the University of Tilburg) and another which, under the heading "Splendours and mysteries of the European public order", is to the last three years of the former European Court of Human Rights.
However, this issue of the Cahiers presents an additional interest since the editorial, which opens it, is penned by the former Belgian Minister for Justice, Melchior Wathelet. Today a judge at the European Court of Justice, he gives his point of view on the Charter of Fundamental Rights whose approval, during the Nice European Council, was a "success for Europe", even if it is sometime suitable to perceive it as a good step in a race that remain long. Firstly, it is citizen Wathelet who speaks. Whatever the imperfections and failings of the Charter, he congratulates its authors for not having left the negotiating table on the pretext that the result would not be perfect, as through the desire to guarantee a dessert before beginning to eat, one risks dying of hunger… In the eyes of Melchior Wathelet, the fundamental aims of the Charter are mainly of a public nature and not legal, but the paradox is that it would be interesting to check, tomorrow, whether the effects of its adoption would not mainly be legal in nature, while the political aims would not have had the effects anticipated. Statements of a nature to surprise when they come from a former political leader who now sits at the Court in Luxembourg… This citizen is not entirely like the others, also wonders, not without impertinence, whether the candidate States - to which the EU 15 have wanted, through this Charter, show their special attachment to the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms - understand the insistence of the same present Member States not to give a biding force to this text. Is this Charter, as some wanted to see it, the beginnings of a constitution? Melchior Wathelet considers it premature to believe in this. Firstly because a constitution would not limit itself to the recognition of the fundamental freedoms and rights; then and mainly because the partisans of the drafting of a European constitution come from the partisans of both slowing and helping European integration a reminder that, unchallenged, is not without value at a time when there is the begging, and with great fanfare, of the major debate on the finalities of the European building process! Finally, Melchior Wathelet wonders whether the message that was aimed to be given through this Charter, to European public opinion - your Europe, is not only a bureaucratic machine, which harmonises the dimension of the lawnmower blades, it is not only an economic, monetary and commercial machine, it is also a group of common values to which we are held…- is sufficient to be convincing. His answer is to say the least circumspect: it nevertheless seems difficult to convince citizens of the importance of a text, which recognises them the rights to which many governments insist for this text for to have a binding force!, he notes. This is what is called putting ones feet in the plate. With reason.
The citizen then gives way to the lawyer who puts across certain questions relating, among others, to the difficulties of interpretation that will stem from the libel of the Charter and the scope of those it covers. The last word finally comes to the judge who broaches the issue of the legal value of the Charter. A non-binding value, we know, that Melchior Wathelet works toward proving: it is probably not opportune that the partisans of a legally binding Charter get stuck, at this stage, he feels while emphasising that, in the opposite case, any discussion over the content of the Charter would have been made impossible (according to him, it is not inconceivable that the content of the Charter be precisely what it is because the most reticent negotiators should not fear that a legally binding effect be given to this text). Other reasons that have supported this: it would have also needed to resolve the difficulties in the articulation of the Charter with the other sources of law from which it is inspired and, more so, the fact that modifying Article 230 in order to widen the conditions for access by individuals to Community jurisdictions was not on the agenda of the last IGC. Though from then on what will judges do with the Charter? Starting from the realisation that the legal scope of the text does not summarise the binding value of the instrument, judge Wathelet puts forward that his peers could refer to the Charter in three ways. First in a complementary manner, to confront their interpretation, in some way as an argument a fortion. Then, the Court could ensure the respect of the rights that are outlined as general principals of Community law or in that they express common constitutional traditions, to which the adage patere legem quam ipse fecisti applies, the individuals could requires institutions that they respect with regards to the rights that the Charter recognises them. In conclusions, Melchior Wathelet states that he remains a partisan of the Union's accession to the European Human Rights Convention, but also recalls that the European building process, patience is (…) the necessary complement to optimism.
Michel Theys
*** Revue du droit de l'Union européenne. Editions Clément Juglar (62 av. de Suffren, F-75015 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45675806 - Fax: 45665070). 2000, N° 4, 288 pages, 290 FF.
The great merit of the new issue of the well-known review by Alfonso Mattera, is to give the word to leaders. Who wrote the editorial on the reform of the European Commission? David O'Sullivan, Secretary general of the said Commission. Through which is signed the article on cooperation in terms of the prevention the fight against crime? Through Tung-Laï Margue, head of the unit "fight against organised crime" in the services of the Commission. Who describes in great detail the Directive on electronic commerce? The chief administrator in the Committee responsible for this project, Emmanuel Crabit, also Community law in terms of cloning and the patentability of inventions covering the genome and certain cells from the human being? Jean-Luc Gal, national expert attached to the DG Internal Market. Also the comment on the Treaty of Nice is from he who was, a few weeks ago, Chef de Cabinet for President Prodi, Michel Petite…
We see the benefits of this solution: the descriptions and commentaries are guaranteed exact, because taken from the source, and they are exhaustive. The article on the electronic commerce directive is a true essay of a couple of hundred pages, which outlines the objectives, the content and the issues of the negotiation on this complex and, from the outset, controversial text. We also see, in this formula, a few disadvantages: even if the texts only engage the authors, a certain "duty of reserve play as soon as political issues enter into the speech. For example, Michel Petite, in his commentary on Nice, when underlining the meaning of the fact that the Commission President will, in the future, be named by qualified majority, notes: it seems that in June 1992, at the Corfu Summit, Mr Dehaene, then Belgian Prime Minister, had been the object of an opposition from a Head of Government. A journalist would have calmly written that John Major had used his veto for the nomination of Mr Dehaene. Though this reticence is rare, and the analysis by Mr Petite is one of the most clear and enlightening texts that one can read on the Treaty of Nice. He emphasises the shadows (numerous) and the lights (rare), while adding in annex a precious summary of the Treaty of Nice that should be read notably by those who deny it any value. The value of the other texts are obvious, issues as complex and delicate as the patentability of human cells or the implementation of the common market principals to electronic commerce are explained by those who form the basis of the European rules in the matter.
(FR)
*** DOMENICO ROSSETTI DI VALDALBERO: Brussels' Acronyms - Les acronymes de Brussels. The European sigla and abbreviations - Les abréviations et les sigles européens. Lucien de Meyer Editeur (Brussels). 2001, 192 pages, 424 FB. ISBN 2-930217-32-4.
Here is a book that will relieve those who, everyday, struggle with the obscure acronyms that grow like mushrooms on the Community ground. This decoder for the troubled citizen contains more that 1,500 European names translated into French and English, from the AAC to ZPS… Scientific head at the European Commission, the author deciphers them succinctly. Praised be to him! As noted the President Romano Prodi in his preface, who keeps this work on his desk and appreciates its value on a daily basis. Unless you already know what is hidden behind AAC and ZPS…
(MT)
*** PASCALINE WINAND: 20 ans d'actions du Comité Jean Monnet (1955-1975). 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 ). 2001, 121 pages
The think tank Notre Europe does not have as vocation to work in the historical domain. With this publication whose idea comes from Max Kohnstamm, a former disciple of Jean Monnet, and which is published with the support of Prof. Rieben, Director of the Jean Monnet Foundation, he moves awayfrom this tradition. In an entirely deliberate manner: this return to the origins of the European plan has seemed useful to use at a time when a major democratic debate on the future of the Union must open, explains Jacques Delors for whom, at this time when the ambiguous concept of pragmatism too often takes the role of political vision, revisits the initial spirit of the European adventure, to revive the ambition, is far from being a useless move. Either way, this is what is put forward by Pascaline Winand, researcher qualified from the Belgian national scientific research fund, who presents the Action Committee for the United States of Europe and the eighteen sessions that it held between 1955 and 1975. This retrospective look is enriching for those who want to understand from where one comes in order to better understand where to go. Thus, as is noted by Jacques Delors in his presentation, it criticises the ideas received in the Monnet method, such as the circumventing of the economic policy or the cog theory: the study sufficiently proves that the European plan, which fed Monnet and his partners, was both economic and social (the former President of the Commission talks of a true obsession with conciliating these two aspects), and is also part of a ambitious geographic perspective (the plan, writes the former President of the Commission, as not to integrate the nascent Europe with a whole dominated by the United States, but to place Europe at its level (another obsession) to make a balanced partnership possible). Or two dimensions that cast light on a pragmatism, which does not satisfy itself… during its existence, the Committee envisaged many present developments of the Union - EMU in particular - but, underlines Delors, always in the light of what forms the unavoidable European plan: confidence, in all areas, in a supranational executive and an independent Court of Justice. An obstinacy that is pleasing to see full of current meaning in current Member States, while the major debate over the finalities grows. Has our Union a need for a new action Committee? Possibly not; the times have changed and civil society shows its strength. However, concludes Jacque Delors, the instrument created by Jean Monnet offers a lesson of permanent pertinence further accentuated by the present context: if the European adventure is the most exalting political project that has been proposed to us, it concerns a difficult path that requires from its partisans both ambition and modesty, a forward looking vision and daily ostentation… To be reflected upon by those who, tomorrow, will prepare the Laeken declaration!
(MT)
*** CHRISTOPH DEMMKE, MARTIN UNFRIED: Umweltpolitik zwischen Brüssel und Berlin. Ein Leitfaden für die deutsche Umweltverwaltung. Institut Européen d'Administration Publique (22 O.L. Vrouweplein, Postfach 1229, NL-6201 Maastricht. Tel: (31-43) 3296274 - Fax: 3296296 - E-mail: m.simons@eipa-nl.com - Internet: http: //http://www.eipa.nl ). 2000, 250 pages, 60 NLG, 27.22 euros. ISBN 90-6779-141-5.
Mainly targeted at German civil servants, who, in the federal and regional ministries, are responsible for environmental policy, this practical guide offers a very useful and precise description of the way in which this issue is tackled in Brussels. Starting by deconstructing the stereotypes through which the European administration is too often presented in Germany, the authors explain the political, legal and instructional foundations of Community environmental policy. By adopting the perspective of a German civil servant, these experts from the Maastricht Institute present the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties, the Council of Ministers, the Commission and the Parliament, as well as the role that they play in this area. A significant part of this book covers the decision-making procedures in the Council of Ministers and Germany (Brussels return) and comitology.
To this pointed information is added other that has as effect to widen the range of possible readers. Thus the work includes practical information on restaurants, public transport and tourist sites in Brussels. Written in a clear and simple language, not free from humour, but always very precise, enriched by many tables and enlightening graphs, the publication also contains an excellent chapter on useful contacts attached, in annex, with a repertoire of potential contacts in the various institutions, as well as a list of the relevant websites… From then on, this book is not only a blessing for German civil servants responsible for environmental policy, but an exemplary introduction to Community policy making, which is of a nature to interest all those who want to be informed, in an in-depth manner, on the workings of the political machine in the European capital.
(PB)
*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Office for the official publications of the European Community, L-2985 Luxembourg) has edited the following documents:
*** Inforegio. Panorama. DG Regional policy. April 2001, 15 pages
This magazine by DG social policy presents the meeting with Jos Chabert, President of the Committee of the Regions, Juan Carlos Rodriguez Ibarra, President of the autonomous government of the Estremadure region whose portrait is painted, as well as Charlie McCreevy, Irish Finance Minister who talks of the action by Community regional policy in his country. In the light of the second report on economic and social cohesion, recently presented by Commissioner Michel Barnier, this issue also assesses cohesion policy and presents the first elements of the debate over the future of this policy in an enlarged Europe. The point is finally made on the "Working together for Scotland" initiative.
*** At the service of the regions. "Europe in motion" series. 2001, 30 pages. ISBN 92-894-0287-3.
Why does there exist a European regional policy? How much does it cost? How is it implemented and for whom? What are the concrete actions that may be supported by the European funds? And what are the results? These are a few of the questions to which this publication brings answers presents in a clear and didactic manner.
*** Biblioteca della libertà. Centro Einaudi (4 via Ponza, I-10121 Turin. Tel: (39-011) 5591611 - Fax: 5591691 - E-mail: segreteria@centroeinaudi.it). Nov.-Feb. 2001, N° 157, 140 pages, 22.000 ITL. Subscription: 100,000 ITL.
This issue notably presents a critical article dedicated to the way in which Italy positions itself in the framework of a European politico-institutional architecture, called upon to become increasingly complex. On the other hand, Italy is only in fourteenth place (just ahead of Greece) in the index of economic freedoms drawn-up by the Einaudi Centre. Another contribution is dedicated to the form and weight of public spending in the member countries of the Union.
*** Revue du XXIe siècle. JLW (16-18 bld. Lemonnier, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5125562 - Fax: 5120131). April 2001, N° 15, 304 pages, 250 BEF.
This issue notably includes a dossier that described the events of the EU-Russia forum, which gathered in Brussels, at the end of last year, experts in relations between the European Union and Russia. The former Ministers for Foreign Affairs Genscher and Primakov are among those speaking, the political, economic and cultural aspects being broached on this occasion.
*** Drugnet Europe. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (23-25 rua da Cruz de Santa Apolonia, PT-1149-045 Lisbon. Tel: (351-21) 8113000 - Fax: 8131711 - Internet: http: //http://www.emcdda.org ). May-June 2001, N° 29, 8 pages
In summary of this publication by the European Centre specialised in the problematic of drugs: national and international coordination as a necessary tool to tackle the drug problem in an effective manner, common databases, new substances placed under the control of the United Nations, Scientific Committee elects its new leaders, the next congress…
*** Trade and membership: directory. British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium (Egmont House, 15 rue d'Egmont, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5409030 - Fax: 5128363 - E-mail: britcham@britcham.be - Internet: http: //http://www.britcham.be ). 2001, 120 pages, 3,500 BEF, 86.76 Euro.
This review presents a "repertoire" of the European institutions and the offices they have in the United Kingdom. Many websites relating to the economy and on-line brokering are cited. Not forgetting, of course, the details of the members of the Chamber and those of British companies located in Belgium. Making this a valuable working tool.
National reviews in short.
*** Slovenia weekly. May 2001, Ljubljana. Slovenia has made much investment in the political, economic and social plans in the framework of the integration process, reason for which this country is now at the head of the candidate countries. Other issues broached: the future enlargement of NATO, Slovenian relations with Hungary and Austria…