*** GÜNTHER WINKLER: The Council of Europe. Monitoring Procedures and the Constitutional Autonomy of the Member States. Springer (4-6 Sachsenplatz, A-1201 Vienna. Tel: (43-1) 3302415 - Fax: 3302426 - Internet: http://www.springeronline.com ). 2006, 542 pp, €98. ISBN 3-211-27962-8.
The Council of Europe has had (and continues to have) a huge impact on Europe, despite the fact that it attracts little media attention. It has had an incomparable influence, for example, on the generally democratic nature and rule of law of the countries which are its members. We owe the European Council the European Court of Human Rights and huge strides in improving the constitutions of new countries emerging from the former Communist bloc. This book explains, however, that the Council of Europe is changing and is trying to ensure its continued existence.
To understand and illustrate these changes, Günther Winkler takes a close look at the way the Council of Europe addressed constitutional reform in Liechtenstein through action that was revealing of various trends in the organisation. The Prince, government and parliament of this little European principality entered a period of constitutional reform in the autumn of 2002 to modernise and render more coherent the ancient constitution, restricting the Prince's powers and extending the powers of the government and parliament. Described in the media on the basis of fragmentary information as an attempt to beef up the powers of the Prince, the reform proposals were the subject of a report and memorandum addressed by Liechtenstein's opposition party to the Council of Europe and, the book explains: 'In this manner, executive Council of Europe organs formally elevated the private report to the quality of a European law initiative'. Wheels were set in motion which 'turned the Liechtenstein constitutional reform into a matter of great political significance in the eyes of the Venice Commission,' the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional affairs. The Council of Europe then took it upon itself to start monitoring Liechtenstein the way it monitored regimes emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union, and before the holding of the referendum on constitutional reform. In order to understand the way the machinery worked in this case, the author makes an in-depth analysis of three important Council of Europe documents on the planned constitutional reform in Liechtenstein, namely the opinion of the Venice Commission, the draft resolution of the Political Affairs Committee and the report by the Surveillance Committee. In paragraph after paragraph, he uncovers procedural problems and errors verging at times on distortion and manipulation, studying the reports in terms of the Council of Europe's official powers. Günther Winkler does not simply carry out a dry analysis of texts and whether they are properly based in law. He also uses a series of documents to attempt to expose the Council of Europe's underlying motivation and the human factor. Reading between the lines, special interests, beliefs and personal connections, or simply a form of institutional solidarity, can be detected.
Moving from the specific to the general, the author then looks at how the Council of Europe functions. Here too, he does not simply outline theories and organigrams, but dissects powers and functioning and describes rivalries between various Council of Europe bodies. He shows, for example, how premature acceptance of new member states from central and Eastern Europe meant that the Council of Europe had to revise its monitoring procedures (after providing useful support to these countries as they were drawing up new constitutions), paving the way for potentially overstepping its powers.
The last part of the book, looking at the present set-up at the Council of Europe and future prospects, also considers the question of the level of democracy guaranteed by the Council of Europe and the question of double standards between large and small countries or old and new members. The author also describes the new direction taken by the Council of Europe since 1989, with its as yet unrealised desire to extend its control over the constitutions of its old member states. Günther Winkler comments: 'My attitude towards Europe is still positive, although critical realism has replaced the euphoria of initial decades,' but seems to have broken a few taboos, writing: 'The Assembly feels in its self-understanding that it is called upon to become the watchdog for all European democracies according to a uniform scheme - with ambitions extending far beyond the borders of historical Europe into the entire world.' Likewise, when he describes the Council of Europe as wanting to beef up its powers and ensure its continued existence, trying to assert itself illegally based on false arguments, at the expense of the democratic desires of Liechtenstein's citizens and, by extension, the democratic desires of all of the citizens of Europe, it is probably not with the aim of damaging an institution whose utility he recognises, but rather to launch a debate on institutions in Europe and how politics meshes with the law.
Frederik Ronse
*** OLGA ILONA NIEMI: Perspektiven der Ratspräsidentschaft in einer erweiterten Europäischen Union. Peter Lang GmbH (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel/Fax: (41-32) 3761727 - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). "Europäische Hochschulschriften - Publications Universitaires Européennes - European University Studies", Sciences politiques series, No. 511. 2005, 311 pp. ISBN 3-631-53857-X.
Various reforms of the Presidency of the Council have mooted due to the geographical expansion of the European Union. How will they impact on the rotation system and will they overcome the challenges of enlargement? The author of this book answers these two questions by taking a systematic look at the mooted reforms in terms of Member States and candidate countries and the European institutions. She outlines the pros and cons of each of the reform plans. A graduate of Ludwig-Maxmilian University in Munich and Bradford University in the UK, Olga Ilona Niemi also provides a model of the operational development of the EU's institutional system and sets out future prospects for the integration process. (CDi)
*** HUIPING WU: Das Spachenregime der Institutionen der Europäischen Union zwischen Grundsatz und Effizienz. Peter Lang (see above). "Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft" series, No. 15. 2005, 252 pp. ISBN 3-631-53690-9.
The basic issue underlying the language question in the European Union is the divergence between the fundamental rights incarnated in each national language and their actual status in the machinery of the European Union institutional bodies. This book explores the issue from many vantage points. The Chinese author studied German at Tongji University in Shanghai and was granted a doctorate from Darmstadt University. He aims to change perceptions in the debate in question and promote a system that listens to citizens. Based on empirical analysis of the Europa website, Huiping Wu determines the status of every official EU language and assesses how EU institutions and bodies give preferential treatment to some languages over others. She then suggests a trilingual model for EU institutional structures, co-existing with a system incorporating all languages at the political level and for the internal market. (CDi)
*** VINCENT DE COOREBYTER: Les partis et la démocratie. Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques (1A place Quetelet, B-1210 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2110180 - Fax: 2197934 - e-mail: crisp@cfwb.be - Internet: http: //http://www.crisp.be ). "Dossiers du CRISP", No. 64. 2005, 128 pp, €7-50. ISBN 2-8707-5094-3.
The director of CRISP, Vincent de Coorebyter, is a well-respected observer of Belgian and European politics. In this newsletter, he starts by explaining the contradictory relationship between political parties and democracy. Political parties are indispensable but suspected of perverting the course of democracy in their own interests. Using the Belgian example, he explains how political parties come into existence by using an interpretation model based on division, asking whether the rising success of Green and Far Right parties translates further splits. In the third part of the book, he studies changes in the political representation system, in other words, changes in relations between governments and those they govern. To this end, he makes use of an analysis model much developed in France, discerning three main phases in the functioning of representative democracy, the most recent being the advent of 'public opinion democracy' in a context of a crisis in political representation, whose causes and effects he attempts to determine. (MT)
*** LEO TINDEMANS, DANIEL CARDON DE LICHTBUER (Eds.): Albert Coppé. Garant (13-15 Somersstraat, B-2018 Antwerp. e-mail: uitgevetij@garant.be - Internet: http://www.garant-uitgevers.be ). 2006, 263 pp. ISBN 90-441-1909-5.
Albert Coppé died on 30 March 1999 and his name will mean nothing to the vast majority of Belgians and other Europeans. But this man from Bruges (Belgium) had a huge influence on the history of Belgium and the European Community. His record for longevity has not yet been beaten and is unlikely to be beaten for some time to come. He was minister three times in the 1950s and was appointed Vice-President of the High Authority of the European Community of Coal and Steel when it was set up in 1952. He did not leave the Commission until more than twenty years later, in 1973. This book was written at the request of his family (particularly his daughter Brigitte) and friends, whether well-known or not, who accompanied him on part of his journey. This book pays tribute in Dutch, French, German or Italian to Albert Coppé, explaining who he was and what he did. Roger Pâquet points out, for example, that it was as Belgian economics minister in 1951 that Albert Coppé decided that pay should be connected to cost of living - Belgians still benefit from this today. Honorary Head of Cabinet at the High Authority, Marcel Peeters remembers how Coppé organised meetings between people from Benelux countries and Italy to encourage Jean Monnet to collaborate further afield than simply with his German colleague, and fighting to get Dutch and Italian recognised as official languages of the Community that was in the process of being set up. Henrik Kröner, Secretary General of the European International Movement, explains how Coppé wrote that if Monnet had been to university and frequented politics or economics faculties, he would never have had the intellectual nerve he made up of on the path he subsequently took. (No better tribute could be paid than this, by a man who always taught economics and statistics…) The late Fernand Herman, erstwhile MEP, explains that Coppé was an Anglophile by tradition, scalded by the EU-unfriendly attitudes of the British in general and Mrs Thatcher in particular, he ended up saying he was convinced that the Commission and the governments of the six founder Member States should have been stricter about respecting the aims of the Community. He wrote that they should never have accepted the clause whereby the UK joined the Community 'as it was functioning now', meaning tolerating its use of the veto without restriction and postponing until a later date reforms it should already have made to correct the detected malfunctioning. Such words have huge resonance in these times of constitutional disenchantment… Jacques-René Rabier pays tribute to a Commissioner who met Father Joseph Wresinski and leaders of the 'Fédération européenne d'Aide à toute Détresse' in 1972, being one of the first to understand that solidarity is a value that demands a related policy, that Social Europe must be more than an election slogan, and the Common Market alone will not ensure equal opportunities, well-being and dignity for all. Food for thought for our times surely? A flamboyant and complex character, Albert Coppé's ideas were firmly rooted in his mind. This book and the short DVD that accompanies it come at the right time, reminding us that troublingly, some of his ideas are still topical … (MT)
*** RAPHAELLE ULRICH-PIER: René Massigli (1888-1988). Une vie de diplomate - Volumes I and II. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes - Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. e-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Diplomatie et Histoire" series. 2006, 1,539 pp. €55. ISBN 90-5201-260-1.
Some books are perfectly outstanding, and this one (or rather these two because it takes the form of two volumes) clearly belongs to that category. Firstly because of its remarkably impeccable style. Both volumes of this book published by the archives department of the French Foreign Ministry come in a box case. Next, because of the extraordinarily high quality of this biography. The history thesis it derives from won the Jean-Baptiste Duroselle Prize for the history of international relations. Also because of the interesting nature of its subject matter, a grand French diplomat with very strong opinions. At the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, René Massigli firmly resisted Hitler's ambitions and the problems of France under Vichy. Close to General de Gaulle, he defended the idea of a European project after the Second World War, based on connections with England and respect for the sovereignty of states. The author explains how Massigli couldn't stand Jean Monnet and his ideas, even saying one day that Monnet would end up on the gallows and he, Massigli, would hoist him up there. From the time of the Schuman Plan onwards, explains Raphaëlle Ulrich-Pier, René Massigli constantly criticised federalists for trying to sabotage projects he described as reasonable (because he thought they would allow the UK to join), comparing them with collaborators. (MT)