*** Revue d'économie financière. Dix ans de transition en Europe de l'Est. Bilan et perspectives. Association d'Economie Financière (282 bld. Saint-Germain, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40499133 - Fax: 40499104 - E-mail: pfe@club-internet.fr - Internet: http://www.aef.asso.fr ). 2001, 553 pp, 35 euros. ISBN 2-911144-61-9.
Written in close cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this special issue of the Revue d'Economie Financière is also available in English, entitled "Ten Years of Transition in Eastern European Countries". It assesses progress in the ten years of transition that have seen Central and Eastern European countries throw themselves into the process of converting their planned economies into free market economies in order to be in a position these days to knock at the door of the European Union. True to its tradition, the Revue focuses on the financial aspects of transition without totally neglecting the real aspects that are of such obvious importance in the present.
In the introduction EBRD President Jean Lemierre gives his own assessment of this accelerated transition and the role the EBRD has played, and then in the first part of the book looks at enlargement of the European Union and incorporating candidate countries into the global economy insofar as these prospects profoundly impact on the implementation of transition measures. Commissioner Pedro Solbes outlines his viewpoint on economic (particularly macroeconomic and financial) aspects of enlargement, while Jacques de Larosière explains why he believes enlargement can be an opportunity for Europe. Prof. Vladimir Andreff analyses the economic benefits the candidate countries expect to reap from joining the Europe Union and also, in time, the eurozone; while Constantine Michalopoulos (economic advisor at the World Bank) outlines the challenges the former Soviet Union will have to deal with if it is to be fully incorporated in the global trading system. Patrice Muller of the EBRD explains the prospects offered by the "new economy" in terms of facilitating the incorporation of transition candidate countries.
The second series of essays looks at the macroeconomic environment and the concept of transition. The essay by Willem Buiter and Ricardo Lago stands out. The two work at the EBRD and in their essay they consider debt developments from the viewpoint that if debt were to grow to unsustainable proportions, the transition process (and incorporation into the European Union) could be heavily penalised. Maria Vagliasindi, also from the EBRD, looks at the implementation of competition policy and the regulation that inevitably accompanies the market economy. The third part of the book explores an essential aspect of transition that will have an impact on the countries in question joining the European Union: how the central banks decide to change. The fourth part of the book is devoted to the development of the financial sector in the countries of Eastern Europe, since the transfer and the development of a market economy cannot be carried throughout without a sufficiently well-developed and well-structured financial system. The very dense book ends with three essays outlining and assessing the serious implications of the transformation of the economy (and more particularly the privatisations that have been implemented) on the job market and on growth.
Michel Theys
*** MICHAL ILLNER: Réformes sur la voie de la décentralisation dans trois pays d'Europe centrale et orientale candidats à l'adhésion. Hongrie, Pologne et République tchèque, 1990-2001. Notre Europe (41 Bld. des Capucines, F-75002 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 44589797 - Fax: 44589799 - E-mail: notreeurope@notre-europe.asso.fr - Internet: http: //http://www.notre-europe.asso.fr ). "Etudes et Recherches" series, No 17. 2002, 39 pp.
This pamphlet is also available in English and was published by the group chaired by Jacques Delors. It document studies the reforms carried out in three countries in central and eastern Europe as they turned their back on the kind of infra-national soviet system that previously existed. As Jacques Delors explains in his forward, this situation "can be located at the cross-roads of several considerable stakes for their future integration in the Union" ( a remark that in this issue rings true for the other countries in central and eastern Europe). Democracy is first of all at stake, as it is necessary to break with the "sterile tradition " of "democratic centralism" and encourage the participation of citizens in public life. Modernisation is the next issue at stake, and as the former President of the Commission asserts, "an organisation consisting of several levels of autonomous authorities is the key to a more efficient and less bureaucratic govern". The third factor at stake is economic, as the "constitution of entities of a sufficient size able to assert themselves as economic interlocutors and credible in the financial arena goes together with the emergence of civil society that is able to actively contribute to economic and social development".
Michal Illner is an eminent Czech sociologist (former director of the Institute of Sociology at the Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic, where he still works). In this study he stresses the common features and differences of the reforms carried out in his country and in Hungary and Poland. In all three cases, this reform process was carried out in two major stages. The first was implemented in the 1990s, when the constitutional foundations of the infra-national system of government was defined and the significance of the local scale was established. The second stage dates from the middle of the 1990s and saw the reforms target intermediate levels of government, which proved to be more difficult, as pointed out by Jacques Delors: "I remember that setting up the local or municipal structures progressed very rapidly because it responded to a strong need for democracy that was not distant, but for want of a regional level link, it was in danger of turning into a confused situation and provoking a certain disillusion that also reflected public opinion. It as in fact at a regional level where the difficulties were compounded, not only because it was here that the question of financial and legislative power was posed in concrete terms, but also because - in the three countries studied - current limits rest uneasily on historic and geographical references that are open to question". This study also sheds light, as emphasised by the former President of the Commission, on the considerable challenge that the success of the implementation of this regional level mechanism would have for management and programming economic and social development in the context of the European Structural Funds. Even more to the point, "it illustrates the risk to the Union of failing to put forward in time an attractive and reasonable model and of therefore being accused of wanting to superimpose statistical cut-outs to what had recently been decided". J acques Delors concludes that although the Union wants its policies to achieve their objectives of cohesion, it must "surely revise them by adopting a pragmatic and decentralised approach".
(MT)
*** ALAIN BARRAU, PIERRE BRANA, MAURICE LIGOT: Contributions parlementaires pour l'élargissement de l'Union européenne: Chypre, Lituanie et Turquie. 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, No 3684. 2002, 77 p. 6, EUR 3.50. ISBN 2-11-109428-5.
This report is the last in a series looking at enlargement published by the Délégation pour l'Union européenne of the French National Assembly since the start of accession negotiations in 1998. It includes the reports made by the Delegation following a tour by three of its members to Cyprus, Lithuania and Turkey in the first quarter of 2002.
(MT)
*** PIERRE BRANA: La candidature de la Turquie à l'Union européenne: entre progrès et incertitudes. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (see above). "Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale" series, No 3685. 2002, 47 pp, EUR 3.50. ISBN 2-11-109427-7.
Aspiring to join the European Union, Turkey was recently granted candidate country status despite the fact that accession negations have not yet been opened since Turkey first has to pledge to meet the Copenhagen criteria (both on the economic and the political fronts). Turkey has got to work on this task and in this report, French MP Pierre Brana considers the situation in 2001, noting undeniable progress in several areas but with nothing definite being won to date given the persistent "uncertainties" about Ankara's capacity to meet the criteria and whether the Turkish authorities really want to prepare the country for membership on the political, economic and administrative fronts. Most of the diagnosis remains relevant at the current moment in time, which sees Turkey sinking into an unpredictable political crisis.
(MT)
*** GIANFRANCO PECCHINENDA, TRAKI ZANNAD BOUCHRARA: La mémoire collective des femmes méditerranéennes dans l'émigration. Etudes de cas: Naples et Tunis. "Publisud" (15 rue des Cinq-Diamants, F-75013 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45807850 - Fax: 45899415- E-mail: publisud@compuserve.com). "L'Observatoire de sociétés". 2001, 95 pp, EUR 11.89. ISBN 2-86600-911-X.
Taking paths too easily abandoned by comprehensive sociology, the authors invite the reader to travel to Italy and Tunisia, from the realm of experience, collective memory and its register of olfactory, auditory and even architectural sensations, the book focuses on the sensations encountered when travelling. The approach looks at the most delicate and most pertinent aspects for understanding the logic of assimilation in emigration. Both case studies deal with the same problems, namely the issue of women's collective memories during the integration process in the host country. Gianfranco Pecchinenda has a Doctorate in Development Sociology Research and Traki Zannad Bouchrara is a Doctor in Sociology.
(AD)
*** NORBERTO LOPEZ PONCE: Ya es tiempo de actuar. El proceso de organización de los profesores del Estado de México, 1921-1959. El Collegio mexiquense (Apartado postal 48-D, Toluca 50120, Mexico. e-mail: ventas@cmq.edu.mx - Internet: http: //http://www.cmq.edu.mx ). 2001, 401 pp. ISBN 970-669-035-2.
This book, written in Spanish, outlines how Mexican teachers from 1921 to 1959 influenced the political life of their country, providing the stability that was so highly cherished by governments and benefiting in return from high levels of income and the status of true political co-decision makers.
(LD)
*** ROBERT P. CLARK: Global Life Systems. Population, Food and Disease in the Process of Globalization. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706, USA. Tel: (1-800) 4626420 - Internet: http: //http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com ). 2000, 351 pp. ISBN 0-7425-0075-6.
Professor at George Mason University, Robert Clark demonstrates in this book that far from being a recent phenomenon, globalisation's roots stretch back though thousands of years of human history. What is more, he argues that globalisation cannot be boiled down to a simple economic process but has to be understood along with its biological and demographic dimensions. The author draws correlations between population history, disease, agriculture, trade, energy resources and, in modern times, information technology, to explain the global biosphere development process.
(LD)
*** CRAIG WARKENTIN: Reshaping World Politics. NGOs, the Internet and Global Civil Society. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (see above). 2001, 207 pp. ISBN 0-7425-0972-9.
This book examines how Non-Governmental Organisations contribute by their diversity to the development of civil society against the backdrop of globalisation. Basing his argument on the premise that it is people who make politics, the author (lecturer in politics at the State University of New York in Oswego) carefully studies eight NGOs and their links to civil society. He then builds up an analytical structure and reviews the mechanisms animating civil society, incorporating them in a theoretical approach that puts people at the centre of global politics. Via his case studies, the author also looks at the role played by the internet.
(LD)
*** LAURENT AUBERT, PIERRE BOIS, ETIENNE BOURS, ALBERT DELCHAMBRE, PIERRE HEMPTINNE, HENRI LECOMTE: Musiques du monde, produits de consommation? Colophon Editions (25 rue Gratès, B-1170 Brussels). "Essais" 2000, 170 pp. ISBN 2-930254-04-1.
This book was produced by the "Consortium 6 novembre" of NGOs active in development in Belgium, which aims to be pluralist and open to stakeholders trying to achieve greater justice and solidarity in North-South relations. It looks at world music, music which used to be called "enthic", "traditional" or "folk" but now takes the catch-all ttile of "world music". The authors note that world music is used to describe a gigantic market subject to the merciless law of profitability. In their essays, they describe the mechanisms and distortions of the broad mix-and-match operations at the heart of this form of globalisation. The authors aim to defend the cultural heritage that is under threat and also, a fortiori, protect North-South relations in general by raising everyone's awareness about the peddled image of "other people's culture".
(LD)
*** The EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Official Publications Office of the European Communities, L-2985, Luxembourg) has published the following documents:
*** Cordis Focus. DG Enterprise (Fax: (352-4301) 32084 - E-mail: innovation@cec.eu.int - Internet: http://www.cordis.lu/news ). 17 July 2002, No 201, 25 pp.
According to Danish research minister Helge Sander, the European Research Area will be the Danish Presidency's flagship programme. Another important issue covered in this issue is the Commission's participation in the Jo'burg Sustainable Development Summit, where it can network with researchers in developing countries in the context of EU research projects. Other areas covered: the European Parliament has published a working document penned by Oviedo University in Spain comparing the 5th and 6th Framework Research Programmes; the report by the common research centre on a new technique for combating export subsidy fraud by testing the sex of cattle from DNA samples.
*** Echo News. Humanitarian Aid Office (Echo Information - Tel: (32-2) 2954400 - Fax: 2954572 - E-mail: echo-info@cec.eu.int - Internet: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/echo/en/index_fr.html). June 2002, No 32. 4 pp.
In this issue: "Humanitarian consequences of the Middle East conflict", "Earthquake in Afghanistan", sexual exploitation of child refugees in Western Africa, food for sex, medicines or plots of land; El Salvador 18 months after a serious earthquake, Europe Day in the Nairobi housing centre with Echo Flight and the outcome of the Echo seminar in Mombassa.
*** The Committee of the Regions 2002-2004. Portraits and Function. Committee of the Regions (92-102 rue Montoyer, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2822211 - Fax: 2822118 - E-mail: info@cor.eu.int - Internet: http: //http://www.cor.eu.int ). 2002, 23 pp. ISBN 92-895-0106-5.
The entire remit of the Committee of the Regions explained in a single brochure aimed at people wanting to understand the role and importance of the European Union's cities and regions.
*** Annual Report 2001. European Savings Banks Group (11 rue Marie-Thérèse, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2111111 - Fax: 211119 - E-mail: info@savings-banks.com - Internet: http: //http://www.savings-banks.com ). 2002, 45 pp.
The European Savings Banks Group's Annual Report looks at trends last year, particularly the changes in EU legislation following the Lamfalussy Report. It criticises the EU institutions for over-regulation.
*** Rivista di Studi politici internazionali (40 Lugarno des Tempio, I-50121 Florence. Tel: (39-55) 666384). July-September 2002, No 275, 162 pp. Subscription: 62 euros.
In this issue: "How NATO is changing from a structured alliance to a variable coalition", in which Vaclav Havel explains that NATO still plays an irreplaceable role; "New war profiles and parliamentary-governmental relations"; "The Islamic theory of law between voluntarism and rationalism in the light of the Maghreb's experience of Islam"; "Italy's return to the international scene"; new books on the Catholic Church and the Papacy in the twentieth century and in the Documents section, a look at the Rome Declaration of 28 May 2002, a document on the global economy in 2001-2002 and protecting the religious heritage of the Council of Europe.
*** Kangaroo Group Newsletter. The Movement for free movement (1A square du Bastion, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5410330 - Fax: 5384980 - E-mail: info@kangaroogroup.org - Internet: http: //http://www.kangaroogroup.org ). July 2002, No 31. 15 pp.
What's the situation regarding the ambition displayed by the EU in Lisbon to become the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world? This is the question answered by Christopher Scott-Wilson, President of Scott-Wilson Partnership. Other issues covered: advertising medicines in Europe, liberalising the car market in Europe and aspects of the European defence industry.