*** JEAN-FRANCOIS DREVET: Histoire de la politique régionale de l'Union européenne. Belin (8 rue Férou, F-75278 Paris Cedex 06. Tel: (33-1) 55428400 - Fax: 43251829 - Internet: http://www.editions-belin.com ). "BelinSup Géographie" series. 2008, 285 pp, €24. ISBN 978-2-7011-4678-2.
This book provides glittering evidence to convince readers that their fears are unfounded - readers, that is, who might still be concerned that Europe, in the way it is being constructed in the face of opposition, is as far removed from citizens as is ignorantly or ignominiously claimed by some parties. Unless they never leave their own backyard, readers will surely have suspected as much during their business travel in the European Union or en route to the Mediterranean to spend their holidays, where they will frequently have come across signposts at major roundabouts announcing that the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or the EU's Cohesion Fund has provided funding for some project or other. Europe of tangible solidarity certainly exists and Jean-François Drevet has done a fine job in this book describing its genesis and development and analysing progress in its modalities and instruments down the years.
An associate professor of geography who has worked at the European Commission and as French town and country planning minister, the author divides his work into four chronological sections. He starts by describing how the European Commission has, since it was set up and until 1984, always struggled in the face of opposition to establish a fully functioning EU regional policy. Struggling in the face of opposition because it had to win the idea of reducing the gaps between regions and it had to gradually meet no less than three fundamental conditions, namely demonstrating that such differences actually existed and were long-term and structural in nature; encouraging the six Member States of the day to manifest a desire to tackle these differences through a special policy at European Community level - as had occurred in the big European countries after the Second World War (the author described measures carried out in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany) - and honing incisive arguments to get the six Member States (later nine Member States) to agree among themselves politically in order to get the policy up and running. At the start, the Commission did not have any weapons, having no suitable legal basis in the Rome Treaty, there being no increase in disparities as a result of the introduction of the Common Market, the fact that only one Member State - Italy - backed the idea of a regional fund and, on top of all this, the combined forces of liberals pitted against what they saw as a pointless policy and separatists (even back then) who didn't want the European Community interfering in the domestic affairs of sovereign nations… The author then describes in detail how the painstaking strategy developed by the Commission led to the creation in 1975 of a European Regional Development Fund that was "not really regional and not really Community." The fund's intervention, management procedures and impact are all described with great accuracy, along with other regional measures (ECSC loans and additional measures for the United Kingdom).
In the same spirit and with the same concern for accuracy, this extremely user-friendly book then explains the 'period of reforms,' from 1985 to 1988, when the Commission chaired by Jacques Delors managed to make a decisive breakthrough. Jean-François Drevet describes how the Commission managed to win a genuine European Community policy to reduce the differences between the regions against the backdrop of a speeding up of the European process, taking the form, for example, of the huge programme for a single market (common market) without any internal borders. The book goes on to explain how the regional policy developed under the 1989-1993 and 1994-1999 programming periods. The author analyses how the Commission then diversified the policy instruments and the difficulties he said it had in managing implementation of the policies. The final period described in the book is the "consolidation" period, in other words the 2000-2006 programming period, characterised by a refocussing of regional policy instruments, a strengthening of its management procedures and the and with preparation of the Union with twelve new Member States. In his conclusions, the author looks to the future and not without a certain concern given that with enlargement towards the East, “a new map of European disparities has emerged, with a more pronounced east-west contrast than between the previous one between the north and south. Although the logic of cohesion policy is more intense than ever, the author points out “downward development in the spirit of solidarity”, with its budget revealing a downward trend in Union GDP since 2000 of 0.46% (in 1999) and 0.35% up to 2013. However, Jean-François Drevet concludes that “only a policy of positive geographical discrimination can tackle the problems of new Member States, which are still poorer than the older states” and makes the following aesthetic exhortation, “After worked the light soil of the Mediterranean area, the tractor of European regional policy now has to cultivate the heavy soils of central Europe and provide it with the means to achieve this aim”. But doesn't this seem a little like preaching in a desert?
Pierre Bouvier
*** GILBERT NOËL, EMILIE WILLAERT (Editors): Georges Pompidou et le monde des campagnes, 1962-1974. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes - Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - e-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Georges Pompidou - Etudes" series, No. 3. 2007, 347 pp., €39.90. ISBN 978-90-5201-357-2.
This book is an extension to the colloquy organised by the Georges Pompidou Association and retraces the vision of the former French prime minister and president on political, economic, social, cultural and even aesthetic campaigning. Edited by two historians, the authors (from academia) and other major witnesses of the epoch in Pompidou's entourage look in turn at the latter's “rural” perspective and his “action” taken while working to develop farming in France. Consequently, several of the contributions look at how France, under de Gaulle and then under his successor influenced the development of the Common Agricultural Market by promoting a European policy on prices rather than structural policies. Professor Gilbert Noel (University of Rennes 2) subsequently points out that Georges Pompidou rejected a common policy for structural agricultural and rural policies. At a Council at the beginning of the 1970s, he declared that, “our objective should not be a Commission in Brussels that corrects regional and structural disparities” and also ruled out the prospect of “considerable sums” being made available to the Community institutions to this end. In the same vein, the “empty chair” crisis is also re-examined in light of the “influence of national policy on the European agricultural project”.
(PBo)
*** HERVE GAYMARD Pour une exception agricole. 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 ). "Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale" series, No. 956. 2008, 197 pp., €6.50. ISBN 978-2-11-124627-0.
This combative information report by the French MP Hervé Gaymard on Common Agricultural Policy and beyond its current “health review” open with the following lines, “Just as we won the fight over cultural exception, it is now time to fight in the arena of exceptions involving food”. In the light of the recent food crisis, the author invites us to “re-examine the theory of international trade” and take into account the fact that farming is a sector of the future in both the South and North and subsequently requires scrutiny of “the question of agricultural development in Southern countries”. He also says that they should contemplate setting up a United Nations Food Safety Council because the World Trade Organisation is, “not the appropriate body for tackling all agricultural and food relative issues”. Gaymard also affirms that Lomé and Yaoundé should be recast on a new basis that contains a critique of the Cotonou Agreements and that the lessons be “learned with regard to the salutary failure of ill-advised Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations and the construction of an exemplary policy of shared development”. The main thrust of the book focuses on presenting the Common Agricultural Policy as being out of breath after reforms, the disappointing proposals by the Commission on the health review . Finally, he outlines the foundations of a green Europe that is, “efficient, legitimate and conforms to the European model”. This is certainly very much a French vision but it should not be ignored by those who know how much Paris is fighting the battle of ideas on this issue.
(MT)
*** PHIL EVANS: In Search of the Marginal Consumer. The FIPRA Study. FIPRA Group Brussels Representation (47 bld St Michel, B-1040 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 4000040 - E-mail: info@fipra.com - Internet: http://www.fipra.com ).
This study focuses on the average consumer and points out that, “consumer welfare has to be rescued from the ideological morass that appears to ensnare it” . Why? Simply because, according to the author, it is a burning issue and the study of consumer behaviour and protection is indispensable if competition policy is not going to, “lose its relevance and credibility in the eyes of the consumer it claims to be protecting.” Evans affirms that this situation has not yet been sufficiently taken into account. This is also revealed in the study by competition officials, lawyers, economists, observes and important figures in consumer groups throughout the 34 countries where the FIPRA group operates. Having illustrated the lack of a realistic approach in current studies, the author attempts to “illuminate areas of debate and to facilitate a dialogue to identify ways forward for some of he key issues that people raised with us”. This lengthy study therefore produces conclusions from the perspective of the consumer in research into competition, criteria determining consumer behaviour in the short and long term, the need for European and US traditions to cohabit and the necessity of pro-active engagement by consumer bodies. This study certainly constitutes an indispensable part of the competition policy research edifice.
(TBa)
*** FRITZ BREUSS, KATRIN RABITSCH: An Estimated Two-Country DSGE Model of Austria and the Euro Area. Europainstitut, University of Economics and Business Administration Vienna (39-45 Althanstraâe, A - 1090 Vienna, Austria. Tel: (43-1) 31336 4135 - fax: 31336 758, 756 -e-mail: europafragen@wu-wien.ac.at - Internet: http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/europainstitut ). "Working Paper s" series, No. 78. 2008, 70 pp. €7.20.
Filling in "an important gap in the literature of the Austrian economy ", this study looks at structural shocks in Austria and other Member States of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU involving production technologies and preferences, high costs and shocks to the political system. The authors therefore chose a macro-economic model based on two regions (a dynamic model and a more balanced one) rather than on a small open economy model and used Bayesian methods for processing data. The authors believe that this was the right choice because, “these models are rich in structure, in the sense that they derive macro-economic relationships explicitly from underlying micro-economic foundations”. They studied the 1976-2005 period, which was first of all separated into pre and post EMU periods and then studied the two periods together. The overall study reveals a series of interesting trends in the two economies, such as the fact that Austria is more exposed to demand shocks than the rest of Europe, while the rest of Europe is more afraid of shocks affecting supply. The study also illustrates how European economic shocks have more of an impact on Austria since EMU implementation in 1999.
(TBa)
*** JOSEFINE KUHLMANN: Kompetenzrechtliche Neuerungen im europäische Energierecht nach dem Vertrag von Lissabon. Europainstitut, University of Economics and Business Administration Vienna (voir coordonnées supra)."El Working Paper" series, No. 79. 2008, 35 pp., €7.20.
In this brief study, Josefine Kuhlmann draws up a balance sheet of Community legislation on energy and focuses on the legal innovations introduced by the Lisbon treaty. The latter contains a new article based on three pillars: sustainability; competitiveness and security of supply. This Working Paper also highlights the solidarity principle contained in this article, which she believes could have a considerable political impact.
(EPi)
*** ANDRÉ SCHNEIDER: Troisième paquet de libéralisation du marché de l'énergie. 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 ). « Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale » series, No. 886. 2008, 123 pp., €5. ISBN 978-2-11-124005-6.
This Information Document critically analyses the “third energy package” submitted by the European Commission in September last year in an effort to go to the next stage in the liberalisation of the energy internal market. The French MP who signed it, as well as the members of the Delegation from the National Assembly to the European Union support measures to strengthen regulation and its coordination, judging them “necessary and opportune”. On the other hand, they are critical of the Commission's determination to impose a single model of unbundling integrated companies. They consider this to be a disproportionate reform, which, by focusing on ownership, leaves out essential questions such as security of supply and energy prices.
(MT)