*** JEAN-VICTOR LOUIS, STEPHANE RODRIGUES (Eds.): Les services d'intérêt économique général et l'Union européenne. Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5129842 - Fax: 5119477 - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). 2006, 450 pp, €60. ISBN 2-8027-2266-2.
As José Manuel Barroso explains in the introduction, this book was published to mark the fortieth anniversary of the series 'Les Cahiers de droit européen', and provides invaluable legal explanations to feed the debate about the future of services of general interest which are, as the President of the European Commission explains, a fundamental challenge for the European project. And the compromise now emerging after month upon month of deep-rooted controversy surrounding the draft directive on liberalising services is an example of this. As Prof. Jean-Victor Louis, Editor-in-Chief of the Cahiers series, points out, it's a question of striking a balance between competition and completing the Common Market on the one hand, and taking other issues of general interest into account on the other, like protecting the environment, security of supply or ensuring universal service, depending on the sector concerned. This can at times be like trying to square the circle of course, which explains the huge utility of this book of essays by recognised academic experts and practitioners explaining how the concept of services of general economic interest arose, along with EU law in this connection, which is in a constant state of flux and confirmation. As Stéphane Rodrigues usefully points out at the start of the useful synthesis in the book, it would never have occurred to the editorial committee of the 'Cahiers' a decade ago to devote a special anniversary issue of the review to this topic because at that time the concept of services of general economic interest was too impregnated with national sovereignty and therefore looked like it would have to remain out of the scope of European institutions. A long road has been travelled since then over the past ten years. Firstly, the concept of public service itself has changed. Secondly, public services have not managed to remain untouched by the logic of EU unification and the re-launch of the idea of a Common Market. Thirdly, because the various rounds of enlargement have put the status and role of services of general economic interest such as they were in the European Community's first six Member States (when the French legal system and its culture were particularly influential) into perspective.
Amongst these shifting sands, it is invaluable to have a book providing a rigorous scientific sweep of the horizon in order to discern the value-added of EU law for national legal systems governing services of general economic interest (SGEI). This is achieved through two complementary approaches. The first part provides 'horizontal' studies of the concept of SGEI and SGI (services of general interest), competition rules, the freedom to supply services and social services, and the link between SGEI and consumers. The second equally valuable part focusses on 'sectoral' approaches to network industries like energy, postal services, telecoms and transport. As Stéphane Rodrigues explains, what emerges is that the value-added of EU law is expressed by certain 'institutional acquis' like transparency (imposed by the affirmation in case law of the need to distinguish between the role of market player and market regulator, separating out the two functions) and the independence of the new national watchdogs (at times, greater independence seems to be needed vis-à-vis governments, notes Rodrigues). Senior lecturer at Paris I - Panthéon/Sorbonne University, Stéphane Rodrigues observes in this connection that the economy cannot be built on a debate on the utility of encouraging the emergence of genuine European regulatory authorities. Noting that the essays show that EU law is part of a move to renew substantive law with regard to SGEI by beefing up the basic operating principles and partially excluding them from competition rules (but Laurence Idot points out that yet again, in the connection between public service and competition, it is competition law which is wining the day), Rodrigues goes on to analyse weaknesses and the future prospects of EU SGEI doctrine, discussing in turn issues like 'grey areas' (Marianne Dony clearly demonstrates that defining or putting outer limits on what exactly SGEI and SGI are remains an open question and the demarcation between the economic and non-economic realm is itself unstable), the funding system still being sought and potential moves in the direction of a SGEI framework directive. In this connection, he hails the imitative by the Socialist Group at the European Parliament to draw up draft legislation of this ilk. Noting that the ball is now in the court of the European Commission and the Member States, he sums up by modestly hoping the book will help the Commission and Member States fully understand the true nature of the beast in order to prepare new perspectives for a genuine EU public service as a renewed pledge of legitimate public action in the service of citizens.
Michel Theys
*** CHRISTOPHE DEGRYSE, PHILIPPE POCHET (Eds.): Bilan social de l'Union européenne 2005. European Trade Union Institute (5 bld du Roi Albert II, bte 4, B-1210 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2240470 - Fax: 2240502 - e-mail: research@etui-rehs.org - Internet: http: //http://www.etui-rehs.org ). 2006, 300 pp, €20 ISBN 2-87452-028-4.
Every year since 2000, the European Social Observatory draws up a balance sheet of the European Union for the European Trade Union Confederation's European Trade Union Institute. The balance sheet is published in both French and English and is a series of articles which have become indispensable and rigorous overviews of the EU, as demonstrated by the latest issue, published in the aftermath of the French and Dutch rejections of the Constitutions and the ensuing doubt and pessimism. It looks at issues like governance rules in the eurozone, political priorities in the new Financial Perspectives, recent and future rounds of enlargement, the role of political, economic and social stakeholders in the debate surrounding the Better Legislation drive, the Lisbon Strategy, the future of pensions and European social dialogue. There is one article in particular which stands out - Pierre Defraigne describes three approaches for preventing the social dislocation that is insidiously under way in the EU today and impacting so heavily on ordinary people's disenchantment with the European Union, as he puts it. Former high ranking official at the European Commission (where he ended his career as Deputy Director General for Trade, after a stint as Head of Cabinet for Etienne Davignon and Pascal Lamy), Defraigne is now a lecturer in European economics at the 'Université catholique de Louvain' in Belgium and wears this hat when he explains how and why the EU, subject to the twin pressures of globalisation and enlargement, has now got bogged down in the dilemma of uneven growth and lower distribution capacity by Member States. Refusing to line up with economists who play down the growth of inequality, or for that matter with economists who attack globalisation, the emergence of China and deregulation in the financial world, he describes several ways of averting the current trend for social dislocation - thereby sheltering the EU from attacks by populism and its logical slippage towards political instability and crises, whose consequences would be anyone's guess. But how? By resolutely attacking the Anglo-Saxon neoliberal ideas governing the definition of the rules of the game and the management of macro-economic and financial policies in the EU and the wider world. Defraigne argues that there is no doubt that one day, the European Commission will craft the laws which implement this change in EU globalisation strategy, although for the moment it will have to tear itself away from the fascination of Davos that has entranced the successors of Hallstein, Jenkins and Delors. This is a million miles from the politically correct discourse that European institutions and governments are in the habit of using, but is no doubt the only way to win back the attention and confidence of ordinary Europeans!
(MT)
*** ALAIN GRIELEN: Menace sur l'humanité. A l'ère des prédateurs. 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.librairieharmattan.com ). "Questions contemporaines" series. 2006, 63 pp, €10-50. ISBN 2-296-00957-3.
'Democracy is the only political system with the job of protecting the modest interests of the majority against the immense interests of the minority, which is why the financial powers that make up the small minority work to insidiously suppress democracy by turning it into an empty shell to deceive people by looking like the real thing but no longer doing its job.' Thus begins the cry of anguish expressed in this booklet. Much more succinctly than Pierre Defraigne (see previous book review), Alain Grielen slams ultra-liberal capitalism, which is jeopardising the whole of humanity, with France in the frontline, and threatens to lead us all to doom, whether in terms of quality of life, the quality of humanity itself or, at the end of the day, the very survival of the human race on Planet Earth. (MT)
*** LARS LAMBRECHT, BETTINA LOSCH, NORMAN PAECH (Eds.): Hegemoniale Weltpolitik und Krise des Staates. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - e-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). "Philosophie und Geschichte der Wissenschaften" series, No. 58. 2006, 201 pp. ISBN 3-631-54416-2.
From the viewpoint of the science of the social economy, the authors of this book take a detailed look at three areas of global changes, firstly the world order and the crisis in the European Union and the welfare state; secondly the 'social contract' and thirdly hegemony of reason and the policy of freedom (and connections with domination and science). The authors involved in the project have a wide range of different speciality areas as would be expected from the cross-disciplinary tradition of arts and social science. (CDi)
*** FRANCOIS GUILLAUME: Participation, intéressement et actionnariat salarié: trois piliers pour l'Europe sociale face à la mondialisation. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 7 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40630033 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Documents d'information" series, No. 3304(updated version). 2006, 139 pp, €5. ISBN 2-11-121187-7.
From a decidedly comparative and European perspective, French parliamentarian and former minister François Guillaume opens this highly comprehensive newsletter by describing the broad outlines of systems for getting staff members involved in the financial interests of companies, namely the essentially financial approach of the United Kingdom, co-management without any significant financial involvement in Germany, the special approach in France where there can be a combination of profit-sharing, stock options, worker involvement and employee savings schemes, and finally the United States, where worker savings schemes tend to take the form of pension plans. The author then explains how, in the absence of any EU framework, the sheer diversity of situations in the Member States prevents companies present in several EU Member States from having a single, fair and uniform approach to worker participation. François Guillaume ends by calling for EU initiatives in this connection and suggests that in order to restore balance in enterprise governance, workers' financial involvement should be extended, along with worker representation on companies' management boards which would, he argues, strengthen the European social model.
(PBo)
*** BETTINA KAHIL-WOLFF, PIERRE-YVES GREBER: Sécurité sociale: aspects de droit national, international et européen. Helbing & Lichtenhahn (8 Elisabethenstrasse, CH-4051 Basel. Tel: (+41-61) 2289070 - Fax: 2289071 - e-mail: info@helbing.ch - Internet: http://www.helbing.ch ). "Dossier de droit européen" series, No. 14. 2006, 389 pp. ISBN 3-7190-2381-8.
Social security is found all around the world these days, but with a huge diversity of different forms and concentration, from embryonic systems to virtually complete welfare systems, point out Bettina Kahil-Wolff and Pierre-Yves Greber. Europe has some of the best developed systems in the world, of a wide range of different types. The main objective of this research was to describe the different forms of social security in Europe, starting with the state system (history, description of different types of state system which are impacted by globalisation in different ways) and the challenges facing social security systems, which have been subject to frequent overhauls in recent years. While it is actually possible to talk about an ambitious but fragile 'European model', the authors go further, examining international social security law (at the UN, the ILO and the Council of Europe) which European social security systems are a part of. These international legal systems are more useful than might appear at first sight. The book also looks at the European Union's social laws which are mainly to do with constructing the Common Market and rarely cover social security proper because this is more for the Member States to deal with although, as Bettina Kahil-Wolff usefully points out, they often have repercussions across vast swathes of social law in the Member States and have a direct impact on citizens to boot. The book also compares and contrasts the system in Switzerland with international and European law. (FRo)
*** Agenda social. European Commission (Fax: (32-2) 2962393 - E-mail: empl-info@europa.ec.eu). July 2006, No. 14, 28 pp. The front page of this newsletter from DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities at the European Commission looks at the need to improve youth employment by encouraging flexicurity. There is also a section on health and safety at work and articles on national reform programmes, defining services of general economic interest and the Globalisation Adjustment Fund.