*** YVES BERTONCINI: Europe: le temps des fils fondateurs. Editions Michalon (14 rue Monsieur-le-Prince, F-75006 Paris. Internet: http://www.michalon.fr ). "RéGénération" series. 2005, 139 pp, €12. ISBN 2-84186-279-8.
While "God works in mysterious ways", the some publishers' distribution networks are just as weird and wonderful. Published over a year and a half ago, this book should have been a feature in this European Library series a while back. It is never too later, however, because the expression 'better late than never' certainly applies to this outstanding book, which grabs one's attention from the title to the very last page. It has what journalistic jargon calls a 'catchy' title, catching all and sundry and inviting readers to explore the book. In reading the volume, readers will also discover that it is a faithful rendering of the author's enthusiasm for Europe, and the fact that the author has been concerned by Europe since he got to know it. Yves Bertoncini hopes that today the time of the 'founding children' will prevail, rather than the time of the 're-founding children', but this is not without its merits - not wanting to draw a curtain on the past, he nevertheless believes the time has come to radically end the chapter of the last sixty years and start off with a clean, almost empty, page.
Our man is member of the home team, however. A graduate of the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium), he is a manager (of availability) at the European Commission. In this role, he mentions in passing that he never felt like he was 'plotting' but going by his book, there certainly is a plot. The worm was in the fruit from the start because in his opinion it is true that Monnet and the other founding fathers launched the European construction by deliberately going behind the backs of communities and elected representatives, taking inspiration from the enlightened despot model (and almost openly claiming it in public). He explains that the EU today is still governed by a small clique, a microcosm separated off from the rest of society. Throughout his book he therefore calls for the EU to be made democratic and for the founding fathers to be killed off because after making a success of the European project, their enlightened despotism is now only adding to the discrediting of the EU. The author argues this can only be done by a four-fold 'democratic revolution'. First of all a psychological revolution of admitting, at pains of not being able to be reconciled with ordinary people, that while the EU is 'miraculous', it is 'also imperfect, fallible and reformable' - this will require fully submitting it to the common law of democratic debate. Next, a philosophical revolution of reconciling the need for efficiency and the need for legitimacy - Eurocrats should stop seeing people as obstacles to be got round but rather as players whose accession is the most valued support. Thirdly, a conceptual revolution - rethinking the EU from the political viewpoints of the ordinary citizen, even if that means dropping the intellectual and technocratic subtleties which the Brussels microcosm so often delights in and giving up the most entrenched EU dogma (even the 'Community acquis' is not popular with the author). Finally, a political and institutional revolution which the author argues would mean a double disowning of what has been achieved so far. He explains that the founding fathers established a technocratic mechanism giving a huge role to non-elected institutions and keeping ordinary people at a distance. The 'founding children' should now cut the EU's civic deficit by allowing ordinary people to directly intervene in its daily affairs and influence its decisions, writes Yves Bertoncini, without making it clear whether he advocates Swiss-style democracy. More serious is his second argument that where the founding fathers preferred a supra-national approach to finally do away with the logic of warfare, the founding children have to be more sensitive to the aspirations for national sovereignty now being expressed because it is a fact that the European project is now touching on areas which are at the heart of national political consensus. Readers will have understood that the 'founding children' do not necessarily follow in the footsteps of the 'founding fathers'.
Suffice it to say that this book is as irritating as it is intriguing and eye-catching, rather like the extremist parties which people sometimes say ask the right questions but don't provide the right answers. A number of over-simplifications, vagaries and even counter-truths contribute at times to this malaise. In the first part of the book setting out ideas about making sense of the European project, for example, the author explains that the supporters of a Europe-area (as opposed to a Europe-power) only want an 'area of peace and prosperity' which is 'perfectly in line with the founding fathers' initial project'. One can hardly believe one's eyes! This is certainly an extremely partial and biased interpretation of the Schuman Declaration! Setting out ideas on how to 'fill Europe's civic deficit', the second part of the book makes one shudder just as much when the author, for example, slams the 'technocratic media monopoly' of the Commission, arguing that the best thing would be to appoint figureheads among the European Commissioners who are accustomed to carrying out similar tasks in their country of origin, 'in other words high-ranking officials'. He recognises that they would represent their country at the Commission, which would 'contribute to giving the Commission easily identifiable state legitimacy'. Not to mention gems like the 'necessity to bring Brussels diplomats under control', and defending the Luxembourg compromise as a 'tool to protect the communities of the EU'. Some 'founding children' may well turn out to be terrifying little tearaways! (Michel Theys)
*** AMBROISE PERRIN (Ed.): 80 ans, 89 hommages. Les députés socialistes européens rendent hommage à Jacques Delors. Groupe socialiste du Parlement européen (Secrétariat du Groupe du Parti socialiste européen, 60 rue Wiertz, B-1047 Brussels). 2006, 209 pp.
The former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, celebrated his eightieth birthday in 2006 but there is still time to pay tribute to the 'best Socialist President that France never had' as British Labour MEP Glynn Ford put it, and to the work of Ambroise Perrin, careful and indefatigable chronicler and photographer of the life of the Socialist group at the European Parliament. Respect, admiration, friendship, 'the bitterness of interrupted friendships', are words chosen by Jean-Pierre Cot, former President of the Socialist group, to describe 'loyal but sometimes troubled' relations with President Delors ('you didn't find it easy to accept criticism' he explains). There are early friends like Claude Estier and Michel Rocard (who writes that 'we left a beautiful legacy - the Left knows how to govern now'), and new kids on the block like Hungarian Csaba Tabadji, who writes that "we miss Jacques Delors"). David Martin of Britain calls him Maastricht Man and Olivier Duhamel remembers: "In l995, I challenged his refusal to stand in the French presidential elections but (I didn't tell him this) I admired him for it ". "There is a tram station in the north of Portugal named after you", explains Paulo Casaca; "You've always been able to inspire young people" (Harlem Désir, writing about his memories of being President of SOS Racisme); "You always had a full house” (British MEP Richard Corbett writing about his time as a young European civil servant). Austrian Maria Berger writes "If it were not for you, I would never have become an MEP". Robert Goebbels provides a page from a notebook with the scribblings of Jacques Delors during a meeting, a page "stolen" by the Luxembourg MEP and carefully squirrelled away for more than twenty years…. Danish MEP Poul Nyrup Rasmussen remembers the humour of a meeting (when Rasmussen was a minister) where "Helmut Kohl was in a bad mood… François Mitterrand had other things on his mind… Most of us were off in our own dreamworlds" when the President of the Commission took the floor "to remind us of our responsibilities, to say that Europe was not just about money… That's when the negotiations actually got started". Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate David Hume penned the most moving tribute, recalling his meeting with Jacques Delors, who had come to open the special peace and reconciliation programme in Northern Ireland: "I took you on a quiet tour around Derry; it was a moment of great calm, happiness and peace …" Other Socialists from all EU Member States express their respect and gratitude to Jacques Delors, who "will never be an ex … but will always remain a front bench politician", concludes Austrian Johannes Swoboda. (LG)
*** GIANNI COPETTI, ROGER VANCAMPENHOUT, CATHERINE VIEILLEDENT-MONFORT (Eds.): 1946-2006 - 60 ans à gauche pour les Etats-Unis d'Europe. Editions Labor (140c, chaussée de Philippeville, B-6280 Loverval. Internet: http://www.labor.be ) and PAC éditions (8 rue Joseph Stevens, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5457911 - Fax: 5457929 - E-mail: editions@pac-g.be). "Les Cahiers de l'Education permanente" series. 2007, 362 pp, €10. ISBN 2-8040-2636-3.
Published by an association connected with the Belgian Socialist Party, this book looked back in sixty important documents at the history of the European federalism defended by the "Mouvement pour les Etats-Unis d'Europe - Gauche européenne", from the period of the Resistance against the Nazis (when a united Europe was an important objective) to the current constitutional deadlock. Tribute is also paid to Raymond Rifflet and Georges Goriely.
(MT)
*** SIMON HIX, ABDUL G. NOURY, GÉRARD ROLAND: Democratic Politics in the European Parliament. Cambridge University Press (The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK. Tel: (44-1223) 312393 - Fax: 315052 - Internet: http://www.cambridge.org ). "European Governance" series. 2007, 242 pp, £15-99. ISBN 0-521-69460-5 (hardback £45 - ISBN 0-521-87288-X).
The European Parliament is a rather unique type of parliament. This raises questions like how and why MEPs form different groups and the role of the political groupings in voting. The authors of this book have undertaken the difficult task of assessing nearly 15,000 registered votes of individual MEPs (votes by show of hand and electronic voting are not included because they are not registered or how individual MEPs voted is not recorded) from 1979 to 2004. Their analysis sheds light on political behaviour and organisation at the European Parliament. Not to put the cart before the horse, the book will be useful for anyone closely interested in the European Parliament. It starts by briefly explaining changes in the EP before looking in more detail at factors like MEP involvement (where the authors manage to scotch some received ideas), the formation of new parties (based on ideology rather than territory), coalitions and the 'Santer Commission' business. (FRo)
*** GERDA FALKNER, OLIVER TREIB: Three Worlds of Compliance or Four? The EU15 Compared to New Member States. Institut für Höhere Studien (56 Stumpergasse, A-1060 Vienna. Tel: (43-1) 59991-0 - Fax: 59991-555 - Internet: http://www.ihs.ac.at ). "Reihe Politikwissenschaft - Political Science Series", No. 112. 2007, 19 pp.
As is well known, not all EU Member States are equally diligent and efficient when it comes to transposing EU legislation into domestic law. But what about the new Member States? The authors ask whether they have "significantly cut their efforts to conform after joining the EU to get revenge for the strong pressures to comply"? To answer this question, Gerda Falkner and Oliver Treib look at research revealing 'three worlds of compliance' in the EU15, moving beyond this to compare and contrast the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. The research was carried out in 2005 and 2006, looking at 90 pieces of legislation to be transposed and interviewing Commission managers and the stakeholders directly concerned by the legislation in question. The study pays special attention to the transposition of legislation on working time and fair treatment at work, two areas which can be more controversial than others in the new member states in Eastern Europe. The study shows, for example, that a new category could be formed of new Member States (and two 'old' Member States) which often transpose legislation quite quickly and literally but then ignore it and do not actually apply it. (FRo)
*** FELIX BÖLLMANN, STEFAN JAROLIMEK, MAKHABBAT KENZHEGALIYEVA, ELENA TEMPER (Eds.): Intellectual and Cultural Changes in Central and Eastern Europe. New Challenges in the View of Young Czech, German, Hungarian and Polish Scholars. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: (41-32) 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). "Sachsen-Mitteleuropa-Osteuropa" series, No. 2. 2007, 161 pp. ISBN 3-631-56019-2.
Following on from a conference at Leipzig University, this book of essays by young researchers sheds light on cultural and intellectual changes in central and Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet bloc as revealed in changes to legislation, policies and the media. They focus on changes in the institutional and political facets of culture in the countries in question, showing that “the law is hardly capable of initiating new cultural practices because it is itself part of that culture". (FRo)
*** La justice administrative en Europe - Administrative Justice in Europe. Observatoire des Mutations Institutionnelles et Juridiques (Presses Universitaires de France, 6 av. Reille, F-75014 Paris). "Les Notes de la Mission" series. 2007, 76 pp, €12. ISBN 2-13-056041-8.
Since no overall research has been carried out on administrative justice in the EU Member States, the 'Mission de recherche Droit et Justice' group has launched a research project in partnership with the 'Association des Conseils d'Etat et des Juridictions administratives suprêmes de l'Union' whose first summary results are published in this bilingual French and English book (each double page spread has one page in French with the English translation on the opposite page). Their study reveals a diversity of different situations but also convergence. The book looks in turn at how administrative justice is organised (institutions and judges) and how administrative action is controlled (access to control bodies, processes, control efficiency and effectiveness). (PBo)