*** LOIC GRARD (Ed.): L'Europe des transports. La Documentation française (29-31 quai Voltaire, F-75344 Paris Cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 40157000 - Fax: 40157230 - Internet: http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr ). "Travaux de la CEDECE" series. 2005, 857 pp, €50. ISBN 2-11-006015-8.
This book certainly won't reach the best-sellers lists in France or anywhere else in Europe, despite being such a masterly volume. Everything you should know - or could wish to know - about 'the Europe of transport' is explained in great depth. And this is no mean feat because as François Lamoureux (once a veritable emblem of the European Commission where he was 'boss' of DG Transports and Energy) explains in the preface, transport has been a common policy ever since the European Community was first set up. After a difficult birth, a huge distance has been covered since the time when the European Parliament had to take the Council of Ministers to the European Court of Justice for failure to act. From 2000 to 2004, EU transport legislation doubled in size and transport has become a big EU policy area, with the opening up of the transport markets, the creation of an integrated area, the development of trans-European networks, social harmonisation and the establishment of regulated competition. And more besides!
Established in 1965 by Prof. Pierre-Henri Teitgen, the European Communities Study Committee (Commission pour l'étude des Communautés européennes, CEDECE) includes most French researchers and graduates in law, economics and politics. It organises a big conference every other year where members discuss a particular area of the European project. This book gives the proceedings of the 2004 conference, where one might well have expected the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe to have been selected as the theme of study. The learned society decided otherwise. Why? As Prof. Loïc Grard explains in the foreword, they decided instead to go back to the basics of the European project and choose a subject which would make it possible, so Europe's founding fathers believed, to demonstrate the very essence of the European Community approach, namely functionalism. This eminent professor of public law at the 'Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV' in France argues that like agriculture and competition, transport stands out as a policy where moving up to the European level has proved particularly useful and convincing and one that the EU can aspire these days to constitutionalise. The two-day conference was held in Agen (France) in October 2004. Its starting point was very deeply rooted in substantive law, but many of the discussions at the conference went on to consider the matrices of institutional law, agencies, external powers and budget issues. As François Lamoureux elegantly writes, the participants (among whom were two Belgians, Jean-Victor Louis and Marianne Dony) were invited to climb the most difficult cliffs of transport policy, meaning that their intellectual pilgrimage included all modes of transport, ranging from areas like opening up the markets to foreign relations via the slippery slopes of infrastructure and risk management.
It is obvious that it is literally impossible to sum up such a vast and detailed overview of a policy that is such a vital element of European integration, territorial cohesion and competitiveness, and that is not, of course, the intention of the writers reviewing books for the European Library. The objective is simply to modestly point out what is useful and interesting about a book and the degree of likely interest to readers. There can be no possible doubt as far as the current book is concerned! In order to reveal its interest, one only has to quote a few of the lessons drawn from the conference by François Lamoureux in the light of his experience. Rail freight transport is still the true missing link for better balance between modes of transport, and this has consequences for the relaunch of European competitiveness. Moreover, one can see transport today as a laboratory for genuine regulated competition, and several contributions shed excellent light on the opening up of markets and the injection of healthy competition along with an impressive range of measures recognising public service, defending passenger rights or even social legislation. More controversially, it seems 'unavoidable' that users will have to pay more towards the funding of infrastructure. For one thing, the income thus raised would have to actually be used for transport, and sufficient funding would also have to be allocated, and this is far from guaranteed. In this connection, François Lamoureux discerns unexplored paths, like relying on lending to provide the mass funding required, with the aid for example of the European Investment Bank for big infrastructure projects. It will come as no surprise to people who remember that Lamoureux was deputy head of cabinet for Jacques Delors, that he has taken up this idea, launched by the former President of the Commission back in… 1992. To those expressing reservations because this would mean getting the EU into debt and opening the door to economic government, he takes the offensive and replies that funding to guarantee such loans could be fuelled by some of the Eurovignette income or royalties on Galileo receivers. Neither of which, he points out, require unanimous voting, unlike 'own resources' decisions! Along a rather twisted path, surely we have ended up back at the heart of the controversy surrounding the constitution?
Michel Theys
*** CHRISTIAN PHILIP: Le deuxième paquet portuaire: maintenir le cap d'une réforme nécessaire, mais amender la proposition de directive. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 4 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40636121 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Les documents d'information de l'assemblée nationale" series, No. 2767. 2005, 106 pp, €5. ISBN 2-1111-9786-6.
Following the second rejection by a European Parliament vote, the European Commission has signed the death certificate of the European ports directive. This Rapport d'information newsletter is still of interest, however, because it provides a brief history of the troubled directive and because as the title selected by the French parliamentarian suggests, the 'necessary reforms' will have to be made one day.
(PBo)
*** RICHARD BLASSELLE: Traité de droit européen de la concurrence. Volume II B. Publisud (15 rue des Cinq-Diamants, F-75013 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45807850 - Fax: 45899415 - E-mail: publisud.editions@cegetel.net - Internet: http://www.publisud.fr ). "Manuels 2000" series. 2005, 663 pp, €96. ISBN 2-86600-999-1.
Professor at 'Université Paris 13' in France, Richard Blasselle has taken on the onerous task of commenting upon and explaining all EU competition law. In the first volume, he presented the subject matter and looked at the application criteria for European competition rules and meticulously reviewed restrictions on competition chargeable to companies. He then considered exchanges, the establishment of persons and the provision of services. In the same spirit, he looks in this volume at the other instruments Member States use to try to influence the market, namely state aid, special and exclusive rights and the drawing up of public-private partnerships. All areas where there is constant tension between bans and derogations at the heart of EU competition law. The author uses this tension as an Ariadne thread to guide readers through the labyrinth. The book contains a bibliography, three chronological tables on EU jurisprudence and the Commission's decision-making process, an index of concepts and an analytical index. The author is planning a fourth volume on the implementation of EU competition rules in which he will look at the coexistence of national and EU legislation and legal protection of economic operators.
(PBo)
*** GEOFFROY RENARD: Les règles communautaires en matière d'aides d'Etat et la fiscalité. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole-Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - E-mail: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr ). "Entreprises et management" series. 2005, 178 pp, €16-50. ISBN 2-7475-8376-7.
This book is the continuation of a postgraduate thesis on international taxation, considering whether at EU level, taxation can avoid the rules required for free competition. It demonstrates that the Commission has a fair arsenal of arms at its disposal to ensure taxation is not used as state aid. The book won the Allen & Overy Prize in 2004, but is written for experts.
(PBo)
*** GRAHAM WATSON, KATHARINE DURRANT (Eds.): Liberal Democracy and Globalisation. Bagehot Publishing (Langport, Somerset TA10 9PS, UK). 2005, 199 pp. ISBN 0-95-457452-4.
The aim of British Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson, President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group at the European Parliament, in this elegant book was to gather together a series of pleasantly-written and instructive articles by twenty-two Members of the European Parliament, all members of the ALDE group (eleven women and eleven men, as is to be expected from a political group so attached to gender equality). In the introduction, Watson writes that 'the liberal Democrat family is a broad church and one in which the differences of opinion between economic liberals and social liberals sometimes render agreement difficult, occasionally unreachable,' but common analysis of globalisation often reaches common conclusions and all the authors 'believe that globalisation offers humankind greater opportunities than dangers, thus distinguishing Liberal Democrats from many members of the Social Democratic or Christian Democratic family'.
(MG)
*** PHILIPPE-ARMAND MARTIN: Accord "vin" Etats-Unis/Europe: poser les conditions. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (see above). "Rapport d'information" series, No. 2685. 2005, 49 pp, €3-50. ISBN 2-1111-9767-10.
This Rapport d'information newsletter casts a critical eye over the content of a wine agreement between the United States and the European Union, signed after twenty years of tough negotiations. The author highlights the different conditions at play during the negotiations, like differences in wine-making practices, semi-generic wines, traditional terms and labelling. He also explains why what he describes as an unbalanced agreement came to be signed. In Philippe-Armand Martin's view, the EU requested the agreement and negotiated from a position of weakness, forcing it to agree to a compromise that sets a bad precedent despite managing to achieve peace in transatlantic relations over the wine trade. The French parliamentarian analyses in detail areas of the agreement he feels should be challenged, and urges the EU to defend its wine-making model with greater determination in the future.
(JPe)
*** ERIC VERNIER: Les techniques de blanchiment et moyens de lutte. Editions Dunod (Paris. Internet: http://www.dunod.com ). 2005, 287 pp. ISBN 2-10-007463-6.
Money-laundering originated with gangster Al Capone in the United States, who set up a chain of laundering companies to give a legal façade to his criminal profits. By investing money raised from crime in legal trade, he turned it into legal profits, thereby protecting it from the long arm of the law. But he was caught out in the end on the grounds of… tax evasion. His failed attempt was food for thought for other criminals, who started using offshore accounts and Swiss banks from 1932 onwards. What is the situation nowadays? In recent years, the world of finance has been transformed to such an extent that it is almost totally different from how it used to be. In a world of transnational and much less regulated finance, modern technology is used to send huge sums of money around the globe in a few minutes in virtually total lack of transparency. This book aims to define modern money-laundering practices and the issues at stake. The author starts by explaining where the laundered money comes from and how it is transported, before explaining the practical details of money laundering, whether amateur (like false invoices) or financial (like company acquisition). The third part of the book looks at how money laundering can be tackled and the bodies set up to do this. The author points out that criminals are getting more and more devious but legislation does not go very far. He then describes banking practices in three EU Member States (France, Germany and Luxembourg), highlighting how potential money laundering is combatted and demonstrating the problems encountered in dealing with ever more complicated crimes. The final part of the book looks at the international issues surrounding money laundering, leading Eric Vernier to comment that crime has become global and is literally integrated into society, meaning that eradicating crime could have massive economic and social repercussions all around the globe.
(NDu)
*** Economia Exterior. Estudios de Politica Exterior SA (49 Nuñez de Balboa, E-28001 Madrid. Tel: (34-91) 4312711 - Fax: 4354027 - E-mail: suscriptiones@politicaexterior.com - Internet: http://www.politicaexterior.com ). 2005/2006, No. 35, 162 pp, €13. Annual subscription: €93.
This entire issue of Economia Exterior looks at development. It is obvious that more than five years after they were established, the Millennium Development Goals are far from being achieved and poverty is far from eradicated (or even contained). Some two dozen Spanish, American and African experts have provided articles on development for the review.
(FRo)