*** ERIC BUSSIERE, MICHEL DUMOULIN, SYLVAIN SCHIRMANN (Eds.): Milieux économiques et intégration européenne au XXe siècle. La relance des années quatre-vingt. Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France (Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et de l'Emploi, Paris). 2007, 429 pp, €35. ISBN 978-2-11-095384-1.
With the 'big internal border-free market' plan and also, very soon afterwards, the plan of Economic and Monetary Union, the 1980s were a second golden age for the European Union, following the start-up years. What role did Member States, the European Commission, employers' lobby groups and trade unions play in the design and launch of this new initiative after a decade of doom and gloom on the European front? What vision and interests did the various stakeholders hold? How did the alliance between the Commission and several hundred big European companies impact? Why did this flurry of activity fail to achieve all it set out to do? In this book, following on from a conference of historians and economists specialising in European issues, also attended by business leaders, interesting and carefully marshalled responses are given to these questions which, in a way, are still decisive for the European project today.
The book is divided into three parts. The first looks at the European Commission's initiatives, starting with a captivating essay by Arthe Van Laer on the first approaches to setting up an EU industrial policy by the European Commission under the leadership of Jenkins and Thorn. The author, a young historian now working on the history of the European Investment Bank, highlights the decisive role played by Etienne Davignon who, by breathing new life into measures in the Paris Treaty for steel and exponentially growing the core of an IT policy, acted as a true policy entrepreneur. Due to the crisis situation and the 'Davignon Method' of getting member states and industry together right from the start, this affirmation of an interventionist, specific industry-based industrial policy at European level was overtaken during the 1980s by what the author describes as a 'competing project' of politicians like Leon Brittan for a free-market interpretation of the Treaty of Rome and it is this project that broadly remains in force today. An economist and EU official working at the Commission, Fabienne Ilzkovitz analyses the Single Market, a 'crucial, unfinished stage in the European economic integration process,' while Ivo Maes looks in a similar mindset at the role of the Commission in the operating of the European Monetary System and the re-launch of Economic and Monetary Union in the 1980s.
The second part of the book looks at the role of countries (focussing on France, the UK under Margaret Thatcher, Italy and Spain) and the third at the position of various economic operators. The book includes a round-table discussion between politicians grappling with reality at the time (like Philippe Maystadt and Alexandre Lamfalussy) which helps readers join the dots between the recent and so profoundly influential past described in the book and the situation on the ground today in the European economy. An illuminating book!
Pierre Bouvier
*** IVO MAES: Half a century of European financial integration. From the Rome Treaty to the 21st Century. Fonds Mercator (2 rue du Midi, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5482535 - Fax: 5021628 - E-mail: livresdart@fondsmercator.be - Internet: http://www.fondsmercator.be ). 2007, 128 pp. ISBN 978-90-6153-790-8.
With its rich iconography, this splendid volume, a jewel in the category of art books, describes half a century of European financial integration, with a preface by Philippe Maystadt, the current President of the European Investment Bank following a long stint as Belgian finance minister. The author of the book, deputy manager at the research department of Belgium's national bank, looks back in very readable detail, even for non-experts in monetary issues, at the big steps in this vital component of the European integration process. In the first part of the book, Ivo Maes describes the steps forward and back in the first decades, covering the abolition of initial controls on the movement of capital in the 1960s and the monetary turbulence of the 1970s. The second part covers the relaunch that can be put down in the late 1980s to the dynamic of the Single Market and its significant financial dimension that later materialised in the Monetary Union project that would prove so successful. The last part looks at the advent of the single monetary policy over the past decade. The author discerns and analyses the emergence of a financial market which is in many ways truly European. This well-justified assessment encourages readers, as Philippe Maystadt comments, to remain optimistic about the ability to improve the financial stability of the integrated European financial market.
(PBo)
*** ERDEM BASCI, SUBIDEY TOGAN, JURGEN VON HAGEN (Eds.): Macroeconomic Policies for EU Accession. 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, 340 pp. ISBN 978-1-84720-000-6.
Based on a conference in Ankara, Turkey, in May 2005 on macroeconomic policies for EU accession, this book looks at the challenges Turkey faces in its bid to join the EU, namely cutting inflation to 3%, reducing its public debt to less than 60% of GDP and reducing unemployment while ensuring the sustainability of public finances. The authors include Erdem Basci, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Turkey, high-ranking European officials and distinguished academics. They see the pre-accession process as a unique experience in that it uses international harmonisation as a tool to implement an overarching reform strategy. The book is divided into four sections - budget policies and the sustainability of public finance; the challenges of monetary policy; conditions ahead of joining the euro; and sustainable systems for the movement of capital. Each section comprises two essays by economists and practitioners of repute, the first looking at the challenges facing current EU member states and the second examining the challenges facing Turkey.
(TBa)
*** CHRISTOPHER H. BOVIS: EU Public Procurement Law. Edward Elgar Publishing (see above). "Elgar European Law" series. 2007, 488 pp. ISBN 978-84542-204-2.
Public procurement is a highly regulated domain at both national and EU level. Such regulation is seen as vital to enable the EU to reach its target of becoming the world's most competition economy. Christopher Bovis, Professor of Law at Hull University in the UK, takes a detailed, wide-ranging look at European and national public procurement law and how it influences policy. In the introduction, the author starts by setting public procurement in context in EU law, going on to examine in the book's sixteen chapters the various rules in force in EU Member States and the EU itself, along with the crucial role played by the European Court of Justice and its case law. This reference book is a must-read for anyone interested in public procurement in Europe.
(NDu)
*** MARION SALOT: Konkurrenz und kooperation in Hightech-Branchen. Das Eispiel des internationalen Flugzeugbauindustrie. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). 2006, 232 pp, €39-70. ISBN 3-631-54833-8.
Game Theory looks at situations where independent players are pitted against one another, along with the potential outcomes and the benefits each party can draw. The prisoner dilemma is the most famous illustration of Game Theory but the theory has been applied to a wide raft of different domains and is now an important area of mathematics. This book illustrates Game Theory in competition and cooperation in the international aviation industry where two global heavyweights, Boeing and Airbus, "play games" to win the greatest market share. Within one game, many others are played out, however. Airbus is in fact a consortium of several other companies competing amongst themselves to get to manufacture the most profitable bits of the Airbus aircraft. It is the regions in which the Airbus sites are located that actually battle it out. Workers in the aviation industry in England, for example, find themselves competing with workers in the aviation industry in Germany. Would cooperation prove more profitable? Would it work in practice? This book by Marion Salot provides the answers to these and many other questions.
(MGr)
*** OLIVER HÜFNER: Abgrenzung der Kontrollkompetenzen zwischen EG-Kommission und Bundeskartellamt bei Zusammenschlüssen gemäss Art. 3 FKVO. Unter konkretisierender Betrachtung des Merkmals "gemeinschaftsweite Bedeutung" und gegenüberstellendem Vergleich der Rechtslage vor und nach dem Inkrafttreten der FKVO 139/2004. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). 2006, 414 pp, €69-60. ISBN 3-631-55098-7.
A very comprehensive book looking at the division of power over mergers and acquisitions between the European Commission and the German federal anti-trust bureau under Article 3 of Council (EU) Regulation 139/2004 on company mergers and acquisitions.
(MGr)
*** LUCA CERIONI: EU Corporate Law and EU Company Tax Law. Edward Elgar Publishing (see above). "Corporations, Globalisation and the Law" series. 2007, 263 pp. ISBN 978-1-84542-774-0.
This is the third book in a series of work by researchers on intriguing and little studied areas of law. The author, a researcher at Leeds University in the UK, argues that the EU's aim of becoming the most competitive economy in the world has to be echoed in areas of EU law governing how companies operate at EU level. He also looks at EU company law and company taxation. The author gives several reasons for this choice of subject matter - the challenge of this subject in academic research and the way research in this domain would therefore benefit students aiming to consolidate a comparative and inter-disciplinary approach to their research; and revealing new intra-EU expansion strategies for companies. The research is divided into two sections. The first looks at the various EU directives and European Court of Justice rulings to establish the right conditions for the Common Market. The author demonstrates that the end result is adding to legal competition between the member states. The second part looks at the criteria for supranational instruments to become solutions capable of ensuring legal competition between member states compatible with the aims of European law in terms of the proper functioning of the Internal Market. Luca Cerioni therefore questions above all the efficiency and legality of the 'supranational solution', noting that the path selected will certainly be based on political concerns rather than purely legal issues. Both legally and politically, however, the answer seems clear to the author - not only can the supranational solution have a legal basis but it could also generate political advantages for all member states and for the EU as a whole, effectively protecting their financial interests.
(TBa)
*** PHILIPP LENNERT: Die Unternehmensnachfolgebesteuerung am Scheideweg. Entwicklung und Ausgestaltung der Besteuerung der Unternehmensnachfolge aus Sicht des Vertrages über die Europäische Gemeinschaft und des deutschen Verfassungsrechts.Editions Duncker & Humblot (Carl-Heinrich-Becker-Weg 9, D-12165 Berlin. Tel: (49-30) 790006-0 - Fax: 790006-31 - Internet: http://www.duncker-humblot.eu ). 2006, 325 pp, €98. ISBN 3-428-12165-1.
The author of this book looks at the taxation of the transmission of companies among individuals (small businesses changing hands). This issue is hugely important in Germany, where small businesses susceptible to such a measure make up between 60% and 95% of all listed companies (different sources suggest different figures). The subject studied here is whether current tax legislation is compatible with Germany's basic law and new EU legislation. An in-depth study of Germany's basic law, the case law of Germany's federal constitutional court and the German federal finance court precedes an introduction to EU law in this domain. The author goes on to examine the compatibility of German rules with EU legislation, but does not only consider legal issues. He also studies the economic impact of the rules on the companies themselves and people in general.
(MGr)
*** Newsletter HESA. Bulletin d'information du Département santé-sécurité de l'ETUI-REHS (Tel: (32-2) 2240560 - E-mail: hesa@etui-rehs.org - Internet: http: //hesa.etui-rehs.org). November 2007, No. 33.
This issue of the European trade union health and safety newsletter includes a dossier on the Commission's communication on the EU's health and safety strategy for 2007-2012, described in the newsletter as an unidentified flying object. Other articles cover RSI and other muscle and bone troubles, harassment and violence at work, the classification and labelling of chemicals and the situation facing workers in Croatia.
(MT)