*** CHRISTOPHE DEGRYSE, PHILIPPE POCHET (Eds.): Bilan social de l'Union européenne 2007. Institut syndical européen pour la recherche, la formation et la santé et sécurité (5 bld du Roi Albert II, box 4, B-1210 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2240470 - Fax: 2240502 - email: kvergeyl@etui-rehs.org - Internet: http://www.etui-rehs.org/research ). 2008, 306 pp, €20. ISBN 978-2-87452-123-2.
This social affairs stock-take of the European Union drawn up each year by the European Social Observatory (monitoring centre) for the European Trade Union Institute for Research, Training and Health and Safety, and the European Trade Union Confederation, is always a big event. The 2007 issue is certainly no exception. This is due in the first place to readable and perfectly understandable essays by writers who avoid superficial views and sweeping statements. Next, a wide field of investigation covering the main issues of the day. In the first part of the book, for example, the role of the EU in the world is considered in the light of combatting climate change (by Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, member of the intergovernmental group of experts on climate change), sustainable development (by Iain Begg of the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science), regulating the financial markets (by economist Pierre Defraigne), international trade unionism (by journalist Christophe Degryse who works for the European Social Observatory), development cooperation (by Frédéric Lapeyre, professor at the 'Institut d'Etudes du Développement' at the 'Université Catholique de Louvain' in Belgium) and asylum and immigration policies (by Cécile Barbier of the European Social Observatory). Four subjects branded into the EU's domestic agenda are then discussed, the Lisbon Agenda and flexicurity (by Maarten Keune, researcher at the European Trade Union Institute), liberalisation of postal services (by Eric Van den Abeele, senior lecturer at the 'Université de Mons-Hainaut' in Belgium), developments in industry-based social dialogue (by Philippe Pochet, who is now director general of the European Trade Union Institute) and an interpretation (critical of course) of European Court of Justice rulings in the Viking and Laval cases (by Dalila Ghailani, researcher at the European Social Observatory).
Another attraction of this annual publication is the freedom it grants its contributors. Its contributors, of course, are not neutral but fundamentally committed. Not always committed politically or, more naturally, committed in the trade union sense, but rather commitment to freedom of thought that is always expressed without holding back, even if it disappoints or upsets people. It is not hugely important because, intelligence always finds its right place. The foreword by the book's editors summarises the spirit of the book. The role of services of general interest in the EU? The European Commission and the European Court of Justice still give the impression that everything is, or everything can be, economic, argue Christophe Degryse and Philippe Pochet. Flexicurity in the light of the review of the working time directive leads them to write - and the agreement signed a few days ago would only have sharpened their tongues - that it would be easier to deregulate and introduce flexibility than to strengthen the security of workers. The gap between pay and company profits and returns on capital, not to mention the unbridled, barefaced pay packages of big bosses slammed by Jean-Claude Juncker? They argue that there is a name for all this - pauperisation. There are plenty more quotes in the book that are just as meaty, some more caustic and others getting straight to the bone.
I will quote Degryse and Pochet again. Against the backdrop of households now being so indebted that they cannot pay their mortgages, the hike in energy prices, and the rising cost of energy and commodities, including food, along with the return of inflation, the two editors turn into doomsayers. They write that the loss of security experienced by people who live from the fruits of their labour while monetary authorities pledge unlimited guarantees to banks that go under because they speculated too much, is once again contributing to creating an image of unfair, uneven and chaotic globalisation. These caustic common sense comments lead me to Pierre Defraigne's essay on 'Europe et la nécessaire régulation du capital". Former high-ranking official at the European Commission (where he ended his career as deputy director general for Trade after having been head of cabinet for both Etienne Davignon and Pascal Lamy), Defraigne now runs the Madariaga Foundation (he was head of the Brussels-European arm of the 'Institut Français des Relations Internationales for a while). He explains with conviction the advent of financial capitalism and the reasons for it running amok since its freeing itself (a deadly move for companies) from politics, with the institutionalisation of tax havens, including tax havens within the EU, being the most obvious symbol. After considering the impact of the advent of 'global finance,' in terms of the unprecedented rise in inequality, the author expalins why Europe is the main relevant level at which to find and administer an antidote to the scourge, also looking at the various reasons which combine at the moment to prevent one from taking up the challenge. He cheerfully slams in this connection the strict control exercised by the financial media, mainly from the English-speaking world, over the European Commission's and European Parliament's initiatives on tax and financial issues. The Economist, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal are capable of destroying the reputation of any Commissioner wanting to stand out on these issues. These papers can even prevent the European Commission getting access to national politicians seen to be hostile to the interests of international finance as far as the gurus of the Atlantic press are concerned, he argues. The writer goes on to dissect the consequences brought about by this personal scheming of the City of London and then argues in favour of strengthened cooperation to achieve financial integration and economic governance worthy of its name in the eurozone, because it is true, he expalins, that it is not the countries that have decided to remain outside the eurozone or the countries that are not yet capable of joining the eurozone that should decide the degree of integration and governance desirable in the eurozone. Is this politically incorrect? Most likely, but isn't the politically incorrect often used to make some very healthy points?
Michel Theys
*** JACQUES MODEN: Les privatisations en Belgique. Les mutations des entreprises publiques 1988-2008. Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques (Crisp, 1 A place Quetelet, B-1210 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2110180 - Fax: 2197934 - email: crisp@cfwb.be - Internet: http: //http://www.crisp.be ). 2008, 373 pp, €24-50. ISBN 978-2-87075-101-5.
Like the EU as a whole, Belgium has been affected since the start of the 1990s by a vast movement to privatise public companies which, boosted by the fact that the Belgian state was the most indebted country in the EU back then, when the EU was preparing to introduce the single currency, led to there being little left these days to privatise. This book looks at how this situation arose.
(PBo)
*** STEFANIE MARTIN: Die Umsetzung der Unternehmensübergangsrichtlinie (Richtlinie 2001/23/EG - Betriebsübergangsrichtlinie) in Spanien. Duncker & Humblot (Postfach 410329, D-12113 Berlin. Tel/Fax: (49-30) 79000631 - Internet: http://www.duncker-humblot.de ). "Beiträge zum Europäischen Wirtschaftsrecht" series, No. 38. 2006, 540 pp. ISBN 3-428-12075-2.
This research was the subject of a doctoral thesis for Erlangen-Nürnberg University in Germany on application in Spanish labour law of EU Directive 2001/23/EC of 12 March 2001 on approximation of Member States' legislation on ensuring workers' rights in the event of the sale of companies, establishments, or sections of companies or establishments. This directive corrected or completed earlier measures in the light of various European Court of Justice rulings and changes in the development of the Single Market and better protraction of the rights of workers in the light of rapid changes to industry. This research also notes that in the economic development of Spain since the end of the Franco regime, the contribution of German companies to the development of the Iberian peninsula's industry has been huge, hence the need for research in the German language on changes in the legal measures of the Spanish legal system in this domain. The author undertook her serious, wide-ranging research at the autonomous University of Barcelona.
(GFr)
*** Inforegio panorama. DG Politique régionale de la Commission (Office des publications officielles. E-mail: regio-info@ec.europa.eu - Internet: http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/dgs/regional_policy/index_fr.htm). December 2007, No. 24.
This entire issue is devoted to the European territorial cooperation objective developed by the European Commission as part of the Lisbon Process.
(MT)
*** JACQUELINE BREUGNOT (Ed.): Les espaces frontaliers. Laboratoires de la citoyenneté européenne. Peter Lang (32 Hoschfeldstrasse, Case postale 746, CH-3000 Berne 9. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Transversales Langues, sociétés, cultures et apprentissages" series, No. 22. 2007, 212 pp, €31-60. ISBN 978-2-03911-305-7.
In the introduction, the book's editor explains how the research it is based on arose, noting that it emerged from what might seem to be minor concerns about how to organise a long-lasting school exchange programme in the Upper Rhine area that borders France, Germany and Switzerland. A survey of teachers in the region revealed contradictions between political power and the reality on the ground, the role of the unsaid, borders symbolising protection and identity, and the implications of cultural differences. Moreover, the interviews with the teachers revealed their lack of curiosity about other people due to the fact they were so close and the way the 'exotic' side of things has disappeared within these countries. Starting with this experience, the book draws together various analyses of different geographical situations along seven borders in Europe from three perspectives - political and social studies, representations and languages; and educational exploration. Each section of the book focuses on one of these topics. The book aims to be predominantly educational, highlighting the number of different approaches possible (and required) when it comes to inter-cultural issues. The book stresses the need for new, extra training for teachers, and exchanges of pupils and schools, but is far more than this. At a time when borders, which had been closed for decades or even centuries, closing in and isolating human and national communities, are being transformed or are disappearing, it is very important to raise all the issues that are being asked of Europeans to learn how to live together, not just in terms of language, but also socially, culturally and politically. The development of a new European identity requires this effort to be made. As Jacqueline Breugnot points out in the summing up, the work is only a starting point, focussing initially on border areas where the problems can be most clearly observed. But it has a much bigger aim. The book makes a highly useful contribution to this immense workshop that is the building of European citizenship shared by all, starting with one's closest neighbours, those living just over the border.
(GFr)
*** AILEEN PEARSON-EVANS, ANGELA LEAHY (Eds.): Intercultural Spaces: Language -Culture-Identity. Peter Lang (29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2007, 301 pp, €60-70. ISBN 978-0-2804-9546-0.
The Irish Royal Academy organised a symposium in 2003 on intercultural spaces, calling for thought on the inextricable links between culture and language, identity and culture, and language and identity. In a 'globalised' world with its plethora of intercultural spaces, it is interesting to see the extent to which exchanges influence language, culture and identity, discerning the pros and cons of this, the conflicts and synergies. Never before has there been such a rich and intense cultural exchange even as the growing intolerance that accompanies it is spreading and seems impossible to stem, to the detriment of the potentially enormous benefits that should arise from it. Various conference participants from the world of politics, literature, education and the theatre attempt through their research and against different backdrops (ranging from cultural exceptions like Galicia in Spain and South Tyrol in Austria to post-colonial Africa and the rebuilding of national identity in countries that were once part of the Soviet Union) to discern the mechanisms at work in these exchanges in order to emphasise the positive and minimise the negative.
(NDu)
*** HASAN BERMEK: L'impact du droit communautaire sur la fiscalité du secteur de l'audiovisuel en Europe. IRIS plus. European Audiovisual Monitoring Centre (76 Allée de la Robertsau, F-67000 Strasbourg. Tel: (33-3) 88144400 - Fax: 88144419 - email: obs@obs.coe.int - Internet: http://www.obs.coe.int ). November 2007, 12 pp.
This publication assesses several tax issues relating to the broadcasting industry and will be a useful guide to various important issues, or at least draw attention to them. The report looks at the legal basis and framework of taxation in the EU, at the way EU competition rules mesh with subsidies granted by Member States to encourage audiovisual work, and the levying of cut-rate VAT to some areas of the audiovisual industry. It also looks at the question of cross-border remuneration and double taxation, concluding that in the fiscal domain, the EU is still a long way off providing a single audiovisual market along the lines of the United States and this situation is unlikely to change overnight due to lack of political will.
(NDu)