*** RENAUD DEHOUSSE: La Fin de l'Europe. Flammarion (87 quai Panhard et Levassor, F-75647 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40513100 - Internet: http://www.editions.flammarion.com ). 2005, 191 pp, €17. ISBN 2-08-210535-5.
Clearly marshalled thoughts, clearly set out. Professor at the prestigious French Politics College where he heads the European Studies Centre, Renaud Dehousse certainly marshals his thoughts. On Europe at any rate, taking its pulse in this book and giving a double-value diagnosis - written and set out in a totally limpid fashion, a million miles from many dusty, pedantic and over-obscure academic texts, written as if the authors took pleasure in being obscure, as if intelligent rhymed with obtuse; it has been written by a free spirit, a 'free thinker' on Europe, who travels down well-trodden paths, the highways and little bramble-torn deadends, to shed light on the crucible and the true roads leading to the European Rome.
Is the European project nearing its end? After rejection by French and Dutch citizens in the full flood of the budget talks where the poisonous 'serves you right' doctrine was working its way through all the veins and arteries, it makes sense to ask the question. Renaud Dehousse provides answers without favouring the dire straits scenario but rather calls on European politicians to again demonstrate political innovation after taking a long, hard look at the real strengths and weaknesses of the European governance model such as it has been formulated since its origins. To set the current crisis against the broader backdrop of the European project as a whole, the author starts by pointing out the positive points and raisons d'être of the original system set up using the 'Community Method'. He observes that even from the viewpoint of a series of governments jealously guarding their powers, the Community road presented a number of advantages. He explains that it was not an ideological show of strength that led to powers being conceded to Brussels, but rather the fact that nation states needed a centre of expertise, a 'neutral body' with the power to initiative legislation which would enable it to seek a synthesis between the different national and industry interests. This supra-national centralisation ensured the legislative programme was not simply dictated by a show of strength among Member States or groups of states. Not to mention the fact, adds Dehousse, that giving monitoring work to an institution whose multi-national nature protects it from over direct political pressure helps cement the credibility of the system and makes each of its common decisions more likely to command respect. The European Commission still has to meet the criteria for winning the trust of the European capitals, which is no longer the case in this situation of crisis. It is a crisis of legitimacy with the end of the 'permissive consensus', growing mistrust of national governments (which, for example, prefer to set up separate autonomous administrative bodies rather than run the risk of giving the Commission more powers), with the trend these days being to focus in terms of policy (like the Lisbon Strategy) on emulation among Member States rather than Community control mechanisms.
Renaud Dehousse then looks at the role of constitutional ideas in Europe post-1945, noting that all attempts to give Europe a constitutional basis have ended in failure. He praises the functionalist/pragmatic approach initiated by Monnet, and is then highly critical of 'false constitutional debate' and the 'anti-federalist Constitution' where individual, short-term concerns of governments won out over the general interest in deciding on a sustainable governance model for the enlarged Europe. The author draws lessons from the referendums and calls on politicians to consider relaunching Europe by focussing on tangible projects that ordinary people can appreciate.
Michel Theys
*** ANNIE LAURENT, NICOLAS SAUGER (Eds.): Le référendum de ratification du Traité constitutionnel européen: comprendre le "non" français. Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po (98 rue de l'Université, F-75007 Paris. E-mail: info@cevipof.sciences-po.fr - Internet: http://www.cevipof.msh-Paris.fr ). "Les Cahiers du Cevipof" series, No. 42. 2005, 167 pp, €14.
Fruit of reflection by the 'Groupe d'Analyse électorale' at the 'Association française de science politique', this publication provides some of the first scientific analysis of the referendum where 55% of the French population rejected the European Constitutional Treaty. Eight essays provide nuanced diagnosis, looking at President Chirac's decision to hold a referendum (after analysing the use of referendums in the 'Fifth Republic' in France, Laurence Morel writes about the President having lost his initiative) and internal consultation in the French Socialist Party, describing the challenges surrounding the vote (allegiance to the French nation predominated among those who voted 'Non'), seeking to understand how the electoral campaign was structured and what the outcome actually means. One lesson is that that 'social fears' played a leading role in the No vote. In this connection, Christophe Piat and Jacques Gerstlé note that in an objectively comparable social situation, media coverage of social affairs on television was three and a half times greater for the 2005 referendum than the 1992 referendum when the French voted Yes to the Maastricht Treaty. They argue that there is no way that Europe being seen as connected with social problems could fail to make the likelihood of ratification even less likely.
(MT)
*** Revue politique et parlementaire. Société d'Edition Diplomatique et Parlementaire (6 rue Labrouste, F-75015 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45315805 - Fax: 45311879). July/August/September 2005, No. 1036, 200 pp, €24. Annual subscription: €61 (France), €75 (abroad). ISBN 2-85702-151-8.
Virtually all this issue of the ever interesting Revue is taken up with a fascinating dossier on "La France, l'Europe… et maintenant ?". The roots and impact of the No vote in the French referendum on the European Constitution are analysed from all angles by mainly academic writers. Politicians are included among the contributors, with interviews of seven French parliamentarians from a variety of backgrounds (Jean-Louis Bourlanges, Elisabeth Guigou, Pierre Lellouche, Pierre Moscovici, Philippe de Villiers, Henri Weber and Francis Wurtz). The review's editorial committee writes that the relaunch of a political Europe with precise geographical borders and corresponding to a crystallising core still known as the 'first circle' seems to be the only possible alternative to the big free exchange zone that some people want to set up, because given the depth of the populist mood and the gap between communities and their political representatives, only seeking new internal cohesion among a handful of countries will make it possible to design institutions capable of giving Europe a political perspective.
(MT)
*** BINO OLIVI, ROBERTO SANTANIELLO: Storia dell'integrazione europea. Il Mulino (37 Strada Maggiore, Casella postale No. 119, I-40100 Bologna. Internet: http://www.mulino.it ). 2005, 347 pp, €19. ISBN 88-15-10479-8.
For more than twenty years, Bino Olivi was a spokesman for the European Commission. In book, he and Roberto Santaniello, head of the European Commission's Representative office in Milan, update Olivi's "L'Europe difficile", outlining the history of the European project from its beginnings, in several very informative and constantly updated books in French and Italian (on the 2001 issue published by Gallimard, see European Library No. 499, annexed to newsletter 8183).
In this new book, Bino Olivi looks at the most recent stages of this long process in a chapter entitled "The European Union in the new millennium and the European Constitution", looking at the way the Constitution was arrived at and the bitter debates on the 'Turkish question'. He says the Turkish question explosively opened another question - European identity and, inevitably, the vital and perhaps necessary precondition of the frontiers of Europe, faced with the arrival of a 'new history'. In the preface, Bino Olivi thrashes out the problem of the EU's final borders, which should be settled in order to guarantee the peaceful and sustainable nature of Europe, now healed from the scars of long post-war periods. The border issue is an essential element of the unresolved enigma of European identity, hidden and neglected for decades by the constraints of the Cold War, warns Bino Olivi, arguing that with the ratification of the European Constitution, we may now be facing the most difficult period in the EU's life, when its very existence may be questioned or at least the objectives that seem vital today may be abandoned, and the EU's institutional structure changed in a negative way. The very structure that, in fat years and lean, has ensured the success of the European project until now, the most original and the most successful inter-state body ever created.
(MG)
*** MICHELE COLUCCI, SALVATORE SICA (Eds.): L'Unione europea. Principi - Istituzioni -Politiche - Costituzione. Zanichelli (34 via Irnerio, I-40126 Bologna. Internet: http://www.zanichelli.it ). 2005, 595 pp, €55. ISBN 88-08-07103-0.
With a preface by the former President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, this big book is, as Michele Colucci (member of the European Commission's legal service) and Salvatore Sica (professor of law at Salerno University in Italy) explain, a collection of essays by academics and people who 'live' European law every day in the European institutions.
Messrs Colucci and Sica explain that throughout the book they deliberately chose to use 'European Constitution' rather than 'Constitutional Treaty' because although the second is more correct from a legal and technical point of view, the first has greater power to evoke images and future prospects.
The contributors include Paolo Ponzano, director of institutional issues at the European Commission's Secretariat General (an alternate member of the Convention that drew up the Constitution), Enrico Traversa, legal advisor at the European Commission's legal service, and Alfonso Mattera, special advisor to Vice-President of the Commission Franco Frattini (formerly special advisor to President Prodi).
(MG)
*** MITCHELL S. MCKINNEY, LYNDA LEE KAID, DIANNE G. BYSTROM, DIANA B. CARLIN (Eds.): Communicating Politics. Engaging the Public in Democratic Life. Peter Lang Publishing (275 Seventh Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Tel: (1-212) 6477706 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlangusa.com ). "Frontiers in Political Communication" series, No. 2. 2005, 312 pp. ISBN 0-82045523-7.
Low electoral turnout, lack of interest in party political broadcasts, cynicism about politics - all signs that many people are losing interest in politics, thereby weakening democratic life by deforming the connection between elected leaders and their electorate. It is precisely this link, this connection between people and their politicians (and aspiring politicians in particular) that is studied in this book.
Most essays come from academia (mainly from lecturers in communications and politics) but there are also some from people 'in the field'. The book has been written by US writers and focuses on the situation on the other side of the pond but various subjects are also relevant for European countries. For example, the EU and the US share the phenomenon of lack of interest, particularly among young people, in the electoral process, a shifting landscape with news formerly provided by the press and television being provided on the web, and lack of interest in politics in general, with people being more interested in immediate single issues like protecting the environment.
Other subjects are more characteristic of the United States, although also found to some degree in Europe. This is the case, for example, for visual and sound manipulation of TV election ads, producing false impressions and alienating people who notice it. The two dozen essays are divided into four chapters.
The first describes the general background to communication and civic involvement, with differing views on how lack of interest in civic life impacts on democracy. The last two chapters look at the form and then the content of messages from political candidates and how politics connects with various categories of people, like women, minorities and young people.
This is an interesting, well-documented book on one of the biggest problems facing in democratic societies. It raises relevant issues like how images are used in politics and candidates' responsibility for promises they make.
(FRo)
*** The EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Official Publications Office of the European Communities, L-2985 Luxembourg. Internet: http: //publications.eu.int) has published the following document:
*** RDT info. DG Research, Information and Communication Unit (Tel: (32-2) 2959971 - Fax: 2958220 - E-mail: research@cec.eu.int). November 2005, special issue, 32 pp.
This special issue is entirely devoted to two Eurobarometer polls on science carried out in 32 countries simultaneously. The two subjects - Europeans, science and technology, and Social values, science and technology - are discussed by two dozen social science experts. The first takes up questions already posed, allowing a degree of follow-up, while the second asks new questions, enabling a broader picture to be gained. The magazine provides the poll results in the form of a diagram and comments in the form of a text. The polls look at how the public sees science and scientists (it is surprising to see that to the question: What is scientific?, medicine gets 4.6 points and astrology 3.1). Citizens' scientific understanding is also assessed (42% have very good basic knowledge), as are their views on ethically sensitive issues. One researcher looks at the poll results and how people relate to science.
*** Politica Exterior. Estudios de Politica Exterior SA (6 Padilla. E-28006 Madrid. Tel: (34-91) 4312628 - Fax: 5777252 - E-mail: revista@politicaexterior.com). September-October 2005, No. 107, 146 pp. €11. Annual subscription: €93.
Politica Exterior opens with an editorial looking back over four years of the war on terror, asking how come Al Qaida can still take action and terrorist leaders can still move about in the world despite the United States' war on Iraq. Other essays take a different approach, looking at democracy in the Middle East, the end of an era for defence and security, the roots of conservatism in Iran, and the review of a book by Jean-Charles Brisard on Abu Musaf al Zarqawi, Bin Laden's second-in-command. The magazine also looks at a range of other topics, some directly connected with the EU, like the recent celebration of 10 years of the Barcelona Process and Ireland as a shining example. Other articles look at links between the EU, the United States and China and the impact of China's emerging economy on Latin America. There is also an interview with Jeffrey Sachs on the Millennium Development Targets and tackling extreme poverty.
*** Élan. FEC (17 place Saint - Etienne, F-67081 Strasbourg. Tel: (33-3) 88353620 - Fax: 88379983 - E-mail: fec.strasbourg@wanadoo.fr). September 2005, No. 3, 32 pp, 7.50 euros. Annual subscription: 29 euros.
Élan is published by the Strasbourg 'Foyer des Étudiants Catholiques'. This issue of the magazine looks at the history and current situation of the FEC on its twenty-fourth anniversary, the inauguration of new premises after five years of renovation work, and the awarding of the French 'légion d'honneur' to Paul Collowald. It also looks at social and cultural life in the French region of Alsace, with an article on painter Camille Claus and another on theatre in the local dialect. There is a humanist editorial on the crisis modern society is currently experiencing. There is an article on French aristocrat de Tocqueville's ideas on equality, understanding that humanity's evolution was irreversibly moving in the direction of universal equality. There is an article on militant secularism and the results of several polls.
*** Paneuropa Intern. Paneuropa-Union Deutschland e.V. (17 Dachauer Straße, D-80335 Munich. Tel: (49-89) 554683 - Fax: 594768). October 2005, No. 9, 4 pp, Annual subscription: €95.
This issue looks at the recently opened accession talks with Turkey and Croatia, with two articles on Turkey and one article on Croatia. On Turkey's accession, Paneuropa Intern explores the relevance of the argument that Turkey joining the EU would improve human rights in the country, asking whether on this basis, we should also ask Algeria, Iran and China to join the EU. It argues that it is the job of organisations like the United Nations to promote human rights first and foremost. The review also opposes the idea, defended by Jack Straw among others, that Turkey's accession would be an important part of dialogue between cultures and religions. The review argues that the Barcelona Process was set up for this and countries like Egypt and North African countries are more legitimate and representative countries for dialogue between Christianity and Islam.