*** ERIC DACHEUX: L'impossible défi. La politique de communication de l'Union européenne. CNRS Editions (15 rue Malebranche, F-75005 Paris. E-mail: claude.laverre@cnrseditions.fr). 2004, 135 pp, 18 euros. ISBN 2-271-06208-X.
An incisive book that challenges received ideas and habits. The author is a researcher in a famous French public institute - the CNRS - and lecturer at the Université Jean Monnet de Roanne (Loire). He is a specialist in a huge area - communications and politics. His book has taken ten years of research and no doubt the subject of a well-mastered thesis, looking at a complex issue dating back, for Europe, to the beginnings of the so-called integration policy, in the middle of the last century. How many times have been heard or read, in the institutions or the different milieus involved, comments about the democratic deficit: "What can people like us do?", "It's too complicated, too distant (or too invasive", "Who decided what in Brussels?", etc?
A book like this cannot be summarised, it has to be read and, possibly, criticised (by mentioning a few forgotten areas in the long list of references). Above all, one gains inspiration from it if one bears responsibilities (as a leader or political representative, teacher or journalist) or simply a European citizen interested in the future of the European experiment.
Eric Dacheux starts by fine-tuning his tools: communication, interpreted as concerning understanding reality, which cannot exist without news, without the transmission of messages of knowledge, but which cannot be reduced to this - communication always refers to the notion of meaning, he comments. Politics is both action and communication. Political communication must therefore be seen as different from publicity, deliberation, propaganda and marketing.
The author is a severe critic of the EU's communications policy, while not underestimating the difficulties of various types inherent in it. He criticises errors in its design and deficiencies in its implementation, particularly the excess optimism in technical means (the television and the Internet) to the detriment of promoting symbols. The criticism is never systematic. The author mentions the series of reforms carried out by the European Commission, but also lists unresolved issues and persistent errors of strategy. In the two chapter which readers may consider to be the most important, he describes (in chapter 4) what could become a broad, popular European public area, in other words a symbolic area belonging to the European Union which would make it possible to legitimise European public activity, making European debate visible and creating a transnational collective identity. This area has to be an area of lively debate, discussion and democratic participation. Dacheux then goes on to speak in chapter 5 of the lost utopia, referring to the ideals and aims of the 'founding fathers' and urging men and women at the beginning of the twenty-first century, in a Europe which is changing its geographical dimensions, to come up with a new utopia for citizens - but not an ideology, not a type of single thought system to be taken or left - but a vision of the future, a clear and mobilising political project. The author also seems to think along the lines of it being necessary to outline this utopia to citizens, over and above electioneering slogans and empty rhetoric. Some people will certainly reply that this is easier to say than to do. But perhaps the most difficult thing is to have the ambition to think things through and put forward - without any arrogance or timidity - aims and means. The debate has been opened …
Jacques-René Rabier
*** BINO OLIVI, BRUNO SOMALVICO: La nuova Babele elettronica. La TV dalla globalizzazione delle comunicazioni alla sociétà dell'informazione. Il Mulino (Bologna. Internet: http://www.mulino.it ). 2003, 337 pp, 23 euros. ISBN 88-15-09468-7.
In 1997, Bino Olivi, one of the founders of the European Community's news services (at a time when the words 'communication' and 'information society' were not yet on everybody's lips, but one simply spoke of 'news'), wrote a book entitled "La fin de la communication de masse: du village global à la nouvelle Babel électronique” with Bruno Somalvico (a historian who studied at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales in Paris and who these days is developing new multimedia projects at the RAI in Italy). In 2003, in the midst of the electronic Babel, Olivi and Somalvico explored its meanderings, drawing attention to the dangers of creating radical new inequalities against a backdrop of extremely rapidly shifting scenery. In terms of television, the authors assert it should seek out its own way in the multimedia world, without abandoning its own specific characteristics and without being absorbed into the Internet which by its nature has remained to this day a tool for interactive individual communication. Olivi and Somalvico doubt that the Internet is the mother of all television in the future, but they do admit that it will hardly be possible to draw 'tranquil' conclusions at the end of their highly detailed, complex analysis of what they describe as an infinite battlefield where adversaries engage in cut-throat competition in the frenetic search for new profit mechanisms guided (sometimes misguided) by blinding optimism. Faced with the unprecedented crisis that broke out in the heart of the New Economy no less, and caused by the New Economy, the authors call for greater wisdom, reminding readers of the triumphal vein in which, in the 90s, the arrival of 'convergence' was hailed, or 'all by computer'. In America as in Europe, 'convergence' has only been 'accidental' and is no more than 'virtual'. They conclude that it has not created new markets, but allow that this could happen one day in a near or not so near future, possibly taking unexpected forms and taking place when least expected.
(MG)
*** LUISA PASSERINI: Figures d'Europe - Images and Myths of Europe. Presses interuniversitaires européennes - Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. E-mail: info@peterlang.com). 2003, 183 pp, 27 euros. ISBN 90-5201-189-3.
Following the Convention on the Future of Europe adding, at the last moment, to the draft European Convention an article modestly entitled "The symbols of the EU" (flag, anthem, currency, etc), the publication of this book comes at a particularly appropriate moment. It gives the proceedings of a conference held at the European University Institute in Florence in April 2000 under the enlightened leadership of Prof. Luisa Passerini (Essen, Turin, Florence). With a preface by President Romano Prodi, this book contains eleven essays in English and French with a summary in the other language, by authors crossing various academic disciplines and national borders. The articles are written in a user-friendly study, with an introduction by Professor Passerini on the "Dimensions of the Symbolic in the Construction of Europeanness". There is a series of comments on a huge variation of topics, from the European anthem, the twelve gold-starred flag, the euro, etc. I would also like the mention an essay by a US academic on the "Representations of Women in European Cartography" and, of course, "Le ravissement d'Europe: tradition et résurgences d'un mythe". A good example of multicultural work, this book does not lack in critical spirit in its consideration of the role of myths and symbols in the building of a European Union, often described as too cold to serve as an identifying value.
(JRR)
*** LORNA CARSON: Multilingualism in Europe. A Case Study. Presses interuniversitaires européennes - Peter Lang (1 Av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.net ). "Multiple Europe" series, No. 18. 2003, 118 pp. ISBN 90-5201-995-9.
The European Union is a multicultural and multilingual project. The upcoming new round of enlargement will greatly increase the number of languages spoken in the EU and this has certain implications for how the institutions operate, but will also have an impact on citizen's lives, through increased mobility and the intensification of cultural exchange and trade. In both cases, it will be necessary to strike the right balance between effective communication and respect for languages. And through this balance, respect for the culture of the person one is communicating with. It is with this in mind that the Fondation européenne Madariaga and the European Cultural Foundation undertook this research into multilingualism. To this effect, the authors selected former students of the College of Europe as their sample. After introducing the various facets of multilingualism in Europe and the connected terminology, the book outlines the methods and outcome of the research. By studying interaction in a community where several languages are spoke, for both professional and personal reasons, the authors aim to provide a contribution to an understanding of multilingualism in Europe. The project to integrate Europe cannot do without such an understanding.
(FRo)
*** The EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Official Publications Office of the European Communities, L-2985 Luxembourg. Internet: http: //publications.eu.int) has published the following document:
*** Le Magazine de l'éducation et de la culture. DG Education and Culture (European Commission B-1049. Fax: (32-2) 2964259 - e-mail: eac-info@cec.eu.int - Internet: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/education_culture/index_fr.htm). February 2004, No. 15, 16 pp.
This issue focusses on learning a foreign language. Through the mouthpiece of the Commissioner for Culture and Education, Viviane Reding, well-placed to comment given her nationality (Luxembourg), the European Commission would like to see Europeans speaking two languages in addition to their mother tongue. The magazine gives the outlines of the current situation, the advantages of learning foreign languages and Commission programmes and their outcome.
*** Europe infos. Commission des Episcopats de la Communauté européenne et Office Catholique d'Information et d'Initiative pour l'Europe (45 rue Stévin , B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2350510 - Fax: 2303334 - e-mail: debbichi-ocipe@tiscalinet.be). January 2004, No. 57, 12 pp. Annual subscription: 27 euros.
Europe Infos this month calls for religion not to be confined to the private sphere, but to have greater weight in the public and political spheres. The monthly publication also looks at future changes in the composition of the European institutions, due to take place this year, along with Europe's credibility in the Middle East and families and demography in Europe.
*** Liaisons sociales Europe. Groupe Liaisons (1 Avenue Edouard-Belin, F-92500 Rueil-Malmaison. Tel: (33-8) 25800929 - Fax: (33-1) 44722027 - Internet: http//http://www.liaisons-sociales.com ). March 2004, No. 99, 16 p, 32 euros. Annual subscription: 867.85 euros.
This issue looks at the still rather hazy connections between the European works committee and national bodies, the European Safety Convention and safety at the Arcelor company and the new directive on the status of citizens of non-EU countries who have been resident in the EU for a long time. There is a regular column listing major reforms of public employment services in European countries, looking at Finland this month. Finland has pretty impressive employment figures, partly due to the fusion of local jobseekers' bodies with social services and social security offices.
*** Cato Policy Report. Cato Institute (1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington D.C. 20001. Tel: (1-202) 8420200 - Fax: 8423490 - Internet: http://www.cato.org ). January-February 2004, No. 1, 20 pp., $2.
The main topic of this issue of the Cato Policy Report is the series of amendments to the Constitution of the United States which may have moved away from the vision of the founding fathers. It also looks at the Cato Institute's twenty-first annual monetary conference, where Greenspan called for rampant protectionism to be dropped, and Grisworld pointed out that Chinese imports were jeopardising the US economy and that job losses were partly due to rising productivity levels.
*** Trade Briefing Paper. Center for Trade Policy Studies - Cato Institute (1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington D.C. 20001. Tel: (1-202) 8420200 - Fax: 8423490 - e-mail: ctps@cato.org - Internet: http: //http://www.freetrade.org ). March 2004, 12 pp, $2.
While many voices in the US are expressing concern at employment, this issue of the Trade Briefing Paper by the Cato Institute preaching the benefits of free exchange and the costs of protectionism gives itself the aim of stamping out a series of ideas. In a pretty optimistic vein, the review demonstrates that the US job market is doing pretty well and that de-industrialisation, for example, is a myth, with countries exporting to the US not being to blame and relocations leading to higher productivity and growth.
Reviews in brief
*** L'Europe en marche. La documentation Française. December 2003, Paris. This slim booklet lists publications on the European Union. *** Carrefour de l'économie. SPF Economie, P.M.E., classes moyennes & Energie. 2004, N° 1A & 1B, Brussels. This issue includes articles on the 2004 budget, surveyors and an introduction to GATS.