*** MICHAEL KUHN (Ed.): Who is the European? A New Global Player? Peter Lang Publishing Inc. (29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006, USA. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2007, 251 pp, €29-10. ISBN 978-0-8204-7895-1.
Michael Kuhn starts the book by warning about the risks encountered by politics when it tries to prove its use, noting that the centre of interest is abandoning 'those who are governed' more and more and turning to governance problems. The authors of this book, however, most of whom are sociologists and lecturers in the science of education, do not want to discuss possible failings of politics but rather the European institutions' image of European citizens and European citizens' role in the European Union. The choice of subject matter comes as no surprise from Michael Kuhn, a political analyst and director of the regional European research forum at Bremen University in Germany. He starts by noting that the EU implements policies on behalf of the European citizen but European citizens and their situation do not get much thought in the reflection, debate and expression of EU policies. He explains that "Europeans are not only no subject in the debates about the 'Europe Project', they are not even a major topic in the discourse of European political elites". The concerns of ordinary people and the challenges of life in a multinational and multicultural world subject to the pressures of globalisation are not reflected in political discourse on European citizens. Michael Kuhn explains that this can be seen in the reformulated Lisbon Strategy where "Europeans are reduced to lifelong learning - adaptable and productive units of human capital'. Quite something from someone who can certainly be counted in the ranks of the detractors of further education…
Taking the role of the citizen in European political discourse as its starting point, the book considers various inter-related factors. One of the first areas of reflection, covered by Kuhn in the first part of the book, is the gap between those governing and those governed in the democratic expression of the will of the people of Europe and the European mechanism (given authority and responsibility for political guidance). The author quotes Terry Seldon in the form of a warning: "The legitimacy of states, and the democratic politics which sustain them, are undercut when people's opinions about what should be done or within the collective agency are marginalised or excluded". The democratic expression of the will of citizens also brings up the concept of free will ("le libre-arbitre" in French and "dürfen" in German). The author looks at how free will can be expressed and how citizens can lead their own lives in the binding political framework of public authority. Michael Kuhn notes that through apparently wholly natural ways of dealing with the fundamental economics of their lives, "citizens reproduce the economic bases of the society the political elites supervise: they accept independently of their particular economic means an economy geared towards and measured against the aim to increase the amount of money they produce. If they have money, they let the money work, if they do not, they work for those who let their money work. If this is done and thus the basic set of economic rules is reproduced, they are entirely free to do whatever they like - although what they like might be related to what the economic resources allow them to do"!
This leads us to a European project left to the guidance of experts whose opinions and recommendations are presented as if they automatically follow from the very essence of modern life. As Anja Heikkinen explains in the third chapter, written in deliberately bellicose terms: "to develop the EU and its member states into a concerted economic, social and education space (EU Commission 2005), to championing global competition between knowledge-based economies', requires a European population which shares the commitment to fight for this end. This is described in a more point-blank fashion by Michael Kuhn, writing that the "EU's aim is nothing less than to compete with other global powers over the global power". Other essays show that the European citizen is seen as a "tool", a pawn, or a "foot soldier" to serve this aim of economic domination. To conclude, the authors have written a political book in which they leave their ivory towers but do not allow themselves to be turned into simple 'regulating' tools to adjust the policies currently under way. On the contrary, the book takes politics head one, and risks upsetting people and ruffling feathers - which is sometimes necessary in order to see what's going on under the surface.
Frederik Ronse
*** MYRIAM BENLOLO CARABOT: Les fondements juridiques de la citoyenneté européenne. Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5129842 - Fax: 5119477 - Internet: http: //http://www.bruylant.be ). "Droit de l'Union européenne" series, No. 4. 2006, 782 pp, €135. ISBN 978-2-8027-2190-1.
European citizenship was given legal status in the treaty signed by the European Union in Maastricht on 7 February 1992. The birth certificate can be found in the European Court of Justice 1963 ruling Van Gend en Loos where the Court ruled that the European Community was a new legal order under international law by which countries limited their sovereign rights in certain areas and the subjects of the European Community are not only member states but also the inhabitants of those member states. The Court of Justice judges in Luxembourg's ruling on the central role of the individual in the EU's legal system led to the elaboration of a concept which has given rise to controversy and impassioned speeches, among law practitioners and in political circles at any rate. Established outside of any actual country, 'European citizenship' shakes up the very foundations of democracy in Europe because, as Robert Badinter explains in the preface, is it possible for European citizenship based on a plurality of nationalities to properly be the cornerstone of a supranational democracy? In an article described by the former President of the French Constitutional Council as being written with character and conviction, Myriam Benlolo Carabot provides a very useful clarification of the issue at the heart of the political project of European integration. The working hypothesis of the author (senior public law lecturer at Nanterre University in France) is that the transposition of citizenship separate from nationality in the European legal system would bring new meaning to the criterion of nationality and would make the criterion of residence the decisive factor, with residency being a legal foundation adapted to the birth of a new type of citizenship revealing a supranational democracy in the making. Through rigorous legal analysis based on international law, constitutional law, the theory of law, comparative law and political science, the author (who won the Dupin Aine chancellery prize for the book) sets out ideas which highlight the profound originality and potentiality of the young citizenship of the EU. Robert Badinter adds that her work provides resolute supporters of the European idea with solid reason to hope.
(PBo)
*** DIRK DE BIÈVRE, CHRISTINE NEUHOLD (Eds.): Dynamics and Obstacles of European Governance. Edward Elgar Publishing (Glensanda House, Montpellier Parade, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 1UA, UK. Tel: (44-1242) 226934 - Fax: 262111 - E-mail: info@e-elgar.co.uk - Internet: http://www.e-elgar.com ). 2007, 204 pp. ISBN 978-1-84720-034-1.
This book arose from the work of nine young European researchers who were part of a Training Research Network from 2002 to 2006 funded by the European Union. They attempted to understand the paradox of the fact that the EU, despite the existence of vetoing options within it (like the unanimous voting rule for many European policies and seeking consensus on the Council of Ministers), has shown a degree of political dynamism in recent years, particularly through the creation of new EU agencies and getting power in new areas. The first four essays in the book explain the paradox in terms of governance and institutional change in general, through the use of the Open Coordination Method for example, or the Bologna Process, which illustrate a supra-European cooperation mode entered into on a wholly voluntary basis. The other five essays study the dynamic of change in the EU's foreign policies in terms of greater free trade with the rest of the world, the EU's Neighbourhood Policy, anti-terror cooperation and the EU's conflict prevention policy.
(FRo)
*** FRANCOIS BRUNAGEL (Ed.): Pierre Pflimlin. Alsacien & Européen. Editions Coprur (34 rue du Wacken, F-67913 Strasbourg Cedex 9). 2007, 57 pp, €19-50. ISBN 978-2-84208-166-9.
Former President of the European Parliament, Pierre Pflimlin would have celebrated his hundredth birthday on 5 February 2007. This term of office at the helm of the EP from 1984 to 1987 was the crowning point of the commitment of this man from Alsace to the European cause that he placed at the top of the values of his political commitment, at the level of an absolute imperative, explains honorary senator Louis Jung at the start of this fine book paying tribute to a French statesman who like his 'teacher' Robert Schuman had "Europe in his heart". Edited by François Brunagel, high ranking official at the European Parliament and secretary of the 'Cercle Pierre Pflimlin', this richly illustrated book is composed of eye witness accounts by two reporters who worked for a long time alongside the man who was the mayor of Strasbourg for twenty-four years. The reporters in question are Alain Howiller, former Editor-in-Chief of "Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace", and Paul Collowald, Pfimlin's head of cabinet before going on to finish off his career as Director General for Information at the European Parliament. The main body of the book is a speech by the former president of the Council under the Fourth Republic in France, made at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on his eightieth birthday, which amounts to being a political testament. Out of date? Not really. The proof of this is provided in a highly journalistic fashion by Paul Collowald, digging up a few lines from a speech to the Council of Europe made by Pierre Pflimlin in 1962: "I think we should look for some way of reconciling the need to enlarge the Community (…) with the no less crucial need to give the Community the cohesion and dynamism and therewith the effectiveness it requires. I think we should look this problem in the eye and we should study what I call a 'differentiated system'. First of all, it would have a solid core of countries which would gradually form a true Community, strongly structured, provided with bodies capable of implementing common decisions and taking on the highest and perhaps the most dangerous responsibilities. Moreover, around this core one could imagine a grouping of countries operating in ways yet to be worked out, which would cooperate with the central core as far as their political and economic situation permits. I believe in the need to ensure the Community loses nothing in terms of coherence, vigour and the ability to move forwards". Forty years later, surely this is the very dilemma that needs to be settled once and for all!
(MT)
*** URSULA E. BEITTER (Ed.): Reflections on Europe in Transition. Peter Lang Publishing (see above). 2007, 192 pp, €55-80. ISBN 978-0-8204-8193-7.
Headed by Prof. Ursula Beitter, the team of contributors to this book study a Europe in transition both in terms of enlargement and in terms of questions about its foundations and identity. Some of the authors look, for example, at feelings of belonging to a particular race or colour and connections with what are perceived as 'the other' (like immigrants), sometimes looking at literature and cinema to this end. Steven Gardner looks, for example, at how the Moors in the Middle Ages were idealised by the Andalucian nationalist movement in Southern Spain looking back to its roots whereas these days people tend to look down on Moorish (North African) immigrants, as illustrated by the film "Poniente". Elke Segelcke looks at the often artificially inflated differences among German and Turkish culture through the work of Zafer Senocak, one of the most prominent German authors of Turkish origin. But the book does not restrict itself to issues of European identity and culture compared with other forms of culture and identity. It also looks at issues like the role of Europe in the globalised world after 11 September. Barry Seldes looks at the militarisation of the EU, asking whether the planned expansion of the EU military force and the focussing of military issues in a new agency are a danger risking undermining the democratic control of the armed forces or whether, if implemented democratically, they might boost European integration.
(FRo)
*** MICHEL ORIS, GUY BRUNET, ERIC WIDMER, ALAIN BIDEAU (Eds.): Les fratries. Une démographie sociale de la germanité. Peter Lang (see above). "Population, Famille et Société" series, No. 6. 2007, 363 pp, €56-10. ISBN 978-3-03911-255-5.
Unlike the connection between spouses or between parents and children, the connection between siblings (brothers and sisters) has generally been ignored by researchers. The articles in this book aim to remedy this. In twelve essays and a large introduction, the book studies fraternal structures and relations historically and sociologically, focussing on the demographic approach, along with case studies from Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Quebec (Canada).
(PBo)