*** ANNIE BLANDIN-OBERNESSER (Edited by): L'Union européenne et internet. Entre logique de marché et préoccupations citoyennes. Editions Apogée (4 bld Gaëtan-Hervé, BP 20224, F-35202 Rennes cedex. Tel: (33-2) 99324595 - Fax: 99324598 - E-mail: apogee.rennes@wanadoo.fr). "Publications du Pôle européen Jean-Monnet de l'Université Rennes I" series. 2001, 189 pages, FF 128, EUR 19.51. ISBN 2-84398-091-7.
This work is captivating! Enthralling! Moreover, from a European point of view, the bearer of hope. Under a title which, firstly, could legitimately lead to fears of a strictly technical or legalistic approach - starting with Annie Blandin-Obernesser, senior lecturer at the Ecole nationale supérieure des télécommunications de Bretagne - offers an invigorating cocktail that marries expertise, vision and European ambitions. To the institutions of a Union, which constitutionalises itself a little more every day, to find in terms of the Internet a European model cleverly dosing economic interests and the concerns of the citizens and power at the international level, writes Prof. Catherine Flaesch-Mougin in her foreword. The study day organised by the Rennes Centre for European Research - of which this book provides an account through topical contributions on the eve of the new millennium - would have constituted an impressive call in this direction.
An introductory section, Anne Troye-Walker, from DG Information Society in the European Commission, plants the legal and regulatory framework of the Internet in Europe, presentation extended by Annie Blandin, who explains that the EU's legal policy in this area is located between regulation and self-regulation. The work then envisages the Internet in the framework of the Internal Market, in the light, on the one hand, of electronic commerce (notably under the auspices of consumer protection) and, on the other hand, access to the Internet. The second part has as title, it, Internet, information society and European citizenship, the protection of fundamental rights, those of personal data circulating on the Internet, the problematic of copyright and Union action in terms of the fight against illegal and prejudicial content being as much questions studied with a highly scientific meticulousness in this framework.
All these contribution turn around a fundamental question: Can a European identity manifest itself on the web? For Annie Blandin and her associated, point of doubt: Community law expressed specific economic, political, social and cultural choices for the Union which, seeking to ensure a balance between market logic and the citizen's concerns, forges a European identity on the network.
Michel Theys
*** THIBAULT VERBIEST, ETIENNE WERY: Le droit de l'internet et de la société de l'information. Droit européen, belge et français. Larcier - Groupe De Boeck (distribution: Accès+, 4 Fond Jean-Pâques, B-1348 Louvain-la Neuve - Tel: (32-10) 482500 - Fax: 482519 - E-mail: acces+cde@deboeck.be). "Création Information Communication" series. 2001, 642 pages, BEF 5,500, EUR 894. ISBN 2-8044-0719-5.
Even if the works on Internet law are already numerous at present, this one is particularly useful in that it tries, in its precise and direct style, to provide global keys to the questions put forward by this emerging law: protection of personal data, intellectual property, cyber crime, illegal content, electronic commerce and tax issues, network regulation… Though what has added even more value to this work, is the taking into account of the international aspects of the network, the responsibility of search engines or private digital copying. Lawyer in Brussels, the authors provide the first complete summary of directives on distance contracts, electronic commerce and the electronic signature, as well as the common position on the draft directive concerning copyright in the information society. For every problematic, they put forward an analysis in European, Belgian and French law, attention being focused on the reader being continuously drawn to the similarities and differences in these legal orders. Foreign rights are also visited in such a way that requires an approach using comparative law. All this in a horizontal approach perfectly adapted to the reality of the information society. An eminent work, practical and concrete.
(GC)
*** DIDIER BOULAUD: Communications électroniques. Vers un nouveau cadre européen. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (Kiosque de l'Assemblée nationale, 4 rue Aristide-Briand, f-75007 Paris - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale" series, N° 2776. 2000, 58 pages, 20 FF, EUR 3.05. ISBN 2-11-109929-5.
This report has been drafted by the French MP Didier Boulaud with urgency, given the imminence, at the time, of the adoption of the regulation on the unbundling of the local loop (which occurred last 18 December). Thus it only constitutes, in the mind of the rapporteur, one step in a much more in-depth analysis concerning the new regulatory framework applicable to fixed line and mobile telecommunications, to the Internet and to cable and satellite television services. Universal service and user rights in the eye of networks and electronic services as well as the common regulatory framework (access to networks and interconnections, authorisation of networks and services, processing of personal data and protection of the private life, framework for radio electric spectra policy) are other themes debated in this preliminary report.
(LD)
*** DIDIER BOULAUD: Le nouveau cadre européen des communications électroniques: quelle régulation pour quels équilibres ? Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (see details above). "Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale" series, N° 3048. 2001, 61 pages, 20 FF, EUR 3.05. ISBN 2-11-115072-X.
Through this more recent report, Didier Boulaud completes and deepens his ideas preliminary (see above) by tackling more specifically the scope of the transposition of the principals of competition in the sector of electronic communications and their necessary conciliation with the requirement of universal service. He proposes a table of texts forming the preparatory framework being prepared around that notion of balance: Balance between monopoly and competition, balance between the ex ante and ex post approach, balance between free market and duty of public service, balance between short-term and long-term, and balance between intervention and regulation. Respecting the balances supposes, according to the French MP, managing to conciliate the interests of the users of electronic communications services, that of incumbent operators, that of new entrants into the market and, finally, that of society on which the information and communication technologies have a positive impact, notably in terms of employment and social cohesion. In a first part, he concentrates on the transposition of the principals of competition to the sector concerned, before dedicating that second part to universal service which is, according to him, a requirement.
(MT)
*** STANISLAS CHAPRON, LOIC TRIBOT LA SPIERE (Edited by): L'espace en état d'apesanteur. Publisud (15 rue des Cinq-Diamants, F-75013 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45807850 - Fax: 45899415 - E-mail: publisud@compuserve.com). "Prospective stratégique" series. 2001, 110 pages. ISBN 2-86600-855-3.
Born from the desire of State and supported by those that had the means, the space sector has for a long time existed as a veritable area of sovereignty: a scientific and technological stake, a tool at the service of the military. The development of an economic market for space - linked to a large extent to the explosion of the telecommunications sector - has it rendered the role of States obsolete and inappropriate? Must we consider that space is no longer of "project" of national interest, but a separate economic sector? Moreover, do the facts confirm this trend? In the preface given to him, the European Commissioner Philippe Busquin underlines that the space sector has not as yet provided fully utilised its potentials, both it is true that our telecommunications, television broadcasting, navigation, climatic and plant monitoring, and security systems are based on the space element and are dependent upon it. From then on, he explains, the EU takes full stock of the strategic, economic and cultural stakes associated to the space sector and seeks to elaborate a coherent and rational common strategy with all of the actors concerned, from the Member States to industry passing by the European Space Agency.
(LD)
*** DAVID GALLOWAY: The Treaty of Nice and Beyond. Realities and Illusions of Power in the EU. Sheffield Academic Press (Mansion House, 19 Kingfield Road, Sheffield S11 9AS. Internet: http://www.SheffieldAcademicPress.com ). "Contemporary European Studies" series, N° 10. 2001, 231 pages, EUR 24, GBP 14.95. ISBN 1-84127-271-X.
The Scotsman David Galloway, who closely followed the negotiation of the Treaty of Nice as a member of the "general political questions" team in the Secretariat General of the European Union Council, was pushed to write this book by an evident desire - reflected in the other allusions, in his work, to realists and illusions of power" within the Union - to try and explain what truly happened in this negotiations, despite his confused and feverish conclusions. In the preface, the Secretary General of the Council, Javier Solana, also recognises the merit of having analysed the political reasons that are behind the decisions taken in Nice and clearly explains why the Nice Summit arrived at the conclusions it reached.
David Galloway is right to compare the negotiation of the last IGC to that of the Agenda 2000. the journalists who followed both the Berlin summit and the Nice summit cannot agree with him when he recalls that in both cases, the questions that were on the table were complex and of importance, which explains why it took so long to reach the last compromises (Galloway recalls that the European Council in Berlin in March 1999 had been, before Nice, the last summit during which the Heads of State and Government had negotiated into the early morning). In both cases, among others, notes the author, the problems of presentation to the public were an important factor in determining the final result, which explains the need for artifices in presentation and confirms that the negotiations within the EU cannot be seen by isolating them from the internal political context of the Member States. In Nice as in Berlin, the Presidency had to, in order to ensure a consensus, pay a price and take into account certain strong national positions, also notes David Galloway for whom, if one adds the plus and minuses in this heavily criticised Treaty, the global assessment is rather positive.
To understand the Treaty of Nice, it is necessary to try to make a distinction between reality and illusion, feels the author who analyses without complacency, but also with realism, the results of the IGC. It is inevitable that in any discussion over the distribution of power between the Member States of the Union, we try to identify winners and losers, he recognises while feeling that each Head of Government left Nice with a presentable result. In particular, with regards to one of the most critical aspects of the new Treaty, the weighting of votes in the Council, he feels that, while the system introduced is undeniably more complicated, the extent to which the decision-making was able to truly been made more difficult is probably only marginal, given a division large against small not occurring in reality, and that most of the qualified majorities represent more than 62% of the population of the Union.
As for the future, on which Nice opened a window that every day opens a little more, David Galloway feels that the key to success will be the ability to forget the empty semantic augmentations to follow a functional approach for what the European Union should do to answer the challenges to which all the European countries are faced. According to him, the aspiring constitutional architects should build structures that, without creating a super-State Union, clearly underline that the Union is a constituent part of the public and political life of the Member States and their peoples, in each region and in each authority, while reinforcing the feeling that the European Union, is us rather than any old foreign entity, cut from the Edinburgh, Tampere or Naples reality. Already the subject for a new book, Mr Galloway?
(MG)
*** Documents. Revue des questions allemandes (50 rue de Laborde, F-75008 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43879042 - Fax: 42935094 - E-mail: bild.documents@wanadoo.fr). 2001, N° 2, 128 pages, 60 FF. Subscription: 250 FF.
The Europe of Schröder or that of Jospin… This is the title of the dossier published in this issue, Joseph Rovan explains in his editorial that France has difficulty freeing itself from a conceptions of the national State, which postulates an independence, which reality now increasingly limits…
(MT)
*** The Federalist. A political review. Edif (6 via Porta Pertusi, I-27100 Pavia, Italia). 2000, N° 3, 127 pages. Subscription: ITL 70,000, USD 35.
American economic power compared to the division of Europe is one of the themes broached in this issue, as well as the debate between American federalists and anti-federalists and its contemporary follow-up, the thinking of Ortega y Gasset, the nature of sovereignty and a federal constitution for Europe.
(LD)
*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Office for the official publication of the European Communities, L-2985, Luxembourg) published the following documents:
*** The social situation in the European Union, Eurostat (Jean Monnet building, BECH A3/48-5, rue Alphonse Weicher L-2920 Luxembourg - Tel: (352) 4301-33408 - Fax: 4301-32659 - E-mail: Eurotat-mediasupport@cec.eu.int) 2001, 131 pages, 158 Euro. ISBN 92-894-1142-2.
This second annual report on the social situation forms part of a series including publications such as Employment in Europe, Social protection in Europe, Working relations in Europe and the report on equality between men and women. It paints a global picture of the demographic and social conditions in light of which European social policy is being formed. Including three parts - a summary of the social trends linked to quality of life and possible challenges, an analysis of developments and an overview of social indicators country by country -, this study very practically looks at a stage… which calls for many others.
*** Living in an area of freedom, security and justice. Justice and Home Affairs in the European Union. DG press and communication (200 rue de la Loi, B-1049-Brussels). "Europe in movement" series. 2001, 23 pages. ISBN 92-894-0197-4.
This brochure enlightens, in short manner, the legal aspects of Justice and Home Affairs in the European building process, policy, which is aimed at answering the security concerns of 375 million inhabitants of the Union. Though the JHA policy represents far more than that: the practical way of seeing a world that is increasingly interconnected and naturally open. The EU sees itself provided with an increasing number of ways to take on this challenge, ways that are not always easy to define - sovereignty requires… - but which every day a little more of a reality in European action.
*** Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali (40 Lungarno del Tempio, I-50121 Firenze. Tel: (39-55) 666384). Jul;y-September2001, N° 271. Annual subscription: 62 Euro.
In summary of this reference publication in Italian university circles, "the church and Europe in the Strasbourg Ecumenical Charter", a Europe without borders, what the countries from Central and Eastern Europe expect from the Union, the relations between the Mediterranean and the Union, the European identity according to Roberto Ducci. National identity and the European identity of Germany in the thoughts and action of Willy Brandt, the Israeli and Palestinian situation, Croat separatism during fascism… In short, enough to fully open areas for thought.
*** Europe infos. Mensuel de la Comece et de l'Ocipe (42 rue Stevin, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2350510 - Fax: 2303334 - E-mail: europeinfos@comece.org). June 2001, N° 28. Subscription: 25 Euro.
Bearing witness of a clear European undertaking, this Catholic monthly recalls, this time, whether we live the time of the regions and diversity, which the 208 regions spread across Europe cover very diverse realities, that there roots plunged into history, but that they be suddenly in the light of day: debates over Corsica, the Basques country, etc. For Europe info, these regions have become one of the keys to the Europe of today and tomorrow as basis for local life, mutual recognition, balance and identity, while allowing the European Union to act more concretely and more directly. Also in summary, other subjects no less interesting such as the Ecumenical charter, freedom of movement and freedom of the press…
National reviews in short
*** Look Japan. Tokyo, July 2001. In summary: SME and the path towards performance in the field of information technology, the new Japanese plan for the next five years in High Tech and, especially, "learn for life", the Japanese reform of education. *** La Lettre d'information, Ministry for Culture and Communication. Paris, June 2001. Two agreements for film co-production signed with Germany and Luxembourg to defend European film production … *** The Nasdaq International Magazine. London, July 2001. Growth and innovation, options and profiles, forecasts for various sectors and countries, all of this to provide a measure of the vitality of actions in this powerful stock market.