*** JULIEN NAVARRO: Les députés européens et leur rôle. Sociologie interprétative des pratiques parlementaires. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, CP 163, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503789 - Fax: 6503794 - email: editions@admin.ulb.ac.be - Internet: http: //http://www.editions-universite-bruxelles.be ). "Etudes européennes" series. 2009, 287 pp, €25. ISBN 978-2-8004-1446-1.
This scientific book starts with an excerpt from no less than Dostoevsky's The Idiot: I say, I do find it fascinating to read reports in the newspapers of debates at the English Parliament. Let me make myself clear. It is not the substance of the debates that I find charming (I am no politician, as you know) but the way the speakers behave and treat each other, so to speak, in their role as politicians: 'My noble Lord in the house opposite me,' 'The noble Lord who shares my point of view,' 'My noble opponent whose suggestion has astonished Europe'; all these little phrases, all this parliamentarianism of a free people, this is what I find so enchanting!" What an elegant way to start a book about the European Parliament and the role of MEPs! The excerpt is relevant because although noble Lords are not such common currency as in the days when Dostoevsky was writing about the Houses of Parliament, there are throngs of 'My dear President's in Strasbourg and Brussels, because very few Members of the European Parliament are not chairing some group, committee or delegation or other and the word 'president' is the French word for 'chairperson'. Above all, if Dostoevsky were around today, he would no doubt end by expressing enchantment at "all these other little phrases, all this parliamentarianism of twenty-seven free nations brought together in one European Union". Barely a few weeks ahead of an election where the democratic legitimacy of the European Union for the five years to come will be at stake, I am tempted to make use of the words of the Russian literary giant of yesteryear to tempt fate…
Unlike Dostoevsky, the author of this book, Julien Navarro, loves politics and has a doctorate in the subject to prove it. Researcher in politics at Bordeaux University in France, after working in turn as a researcher at the 'Université Libre de Bruxelles,' in Belgium, the School of Global Studies of Göteborg University in Sweden and at the Sociology Institute of Jena University in Germany, the author looks in this book at the European Parliament by studying the behaviour of the Members of the Parliament during the fifth legislature from 1999 to 2004. This was a very highly charged period in terms of politics, characterised by the mad cow disease crisis, the resignation of the European Commission chaired by Jacques Santer, the launch of NATO's war on Serbia, divisions in the EU over the Iraq War, the Nice Treaty and preparations for a European constitution. After describing the backdrop and looking at how the European Parliament is interpreted in technical literature, the author lays the foundations for an analysis of representative roles and practice at EU level and the special role played by the European Parliament in the European Union's institutional set-up, along with the vagaries of the electoral mandate and the invention of EU parliamentarianism from the various national experiences. In the second part of the book, the author looks in greater detail at the sociological background of MEPs in the term of office in question, in other words their social characteristics, work experience and political experience, which helps him measure the degree of heterogeneity of European Parliament staff and demonstrate that MEPs are "highly dissimilar to the communities they are supposed to represent" - remaining anchored in domestic power games. He sharpens the focus even further by then looking at MEPs' behaviour in practice, arguing that the idea of analysing Europe's politicians solely in terms of where they sit on the scale of left to right does not capture the complex nature of MEPs because a range of different types of behaviour are possible at the European Parliament. Using an interpretative sociological approach, Julien Navarro discerns five main types of representative roles which, he argues, "are ways of bringing the European Union to life- sometimes by challenging it - and breathing politics into it". Based on information he gathered and interviews with 78 MEPs of 11 different nationalities, he goes on to argue that the role MEPs decide to play is not influenced very much by primary and secondary socialisation roles. Instead, it is influenced by strategic concerns, career advancement strategies and considerations like the MEPs' view of the European integration project and European democracy in general.
In the conclusion, the author looks at the five main types of representative roles that he discerns at the European Parliament. Most MEPs see themselves as falling into one of the three following categories: first the animators who bring EU politics to life through their intellectual contribution to the debate and their coordination of various political forces; then the specialists who focus on the European Parliament's influence in the decision-making process and contribute know-how; and then intermediaries who work within a special relationship with their voters, whose interests they defend. Along with these dominant mode, Julien Navarro has also detected challengers who, dissatisfied with the way the EU institutions operate, express their disagreement through protest and a tribal attitude in general. Understandably, nobody admits to being a member of the author's final category, that of dilettantes who only view their seat at the European Parliament as a private lever to help them open other doors. Is this plurality of roles a sign that the European Parliament is still largely an unintegrated institution? Probably, but the author deduces from this that "the future of the European public arena is (…) closely connected to MEPs' values and interests" and there is therefore "more than one way of politicising Europe". Is this a matter of concern? We will begin to get an answer to the question in the evening of 7 June 2009 when the results start coming in…
Michel Theys
*** DAVID EARNSHAW, DAVID JUDGE: The European Parliament. Palgrave Macmillan (Brunel Road, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS, UK. Tel: (44-1256) 302794 - Fax: 330688 - email: palgrave@macmillan.com.au - Internet: http://www.palgrave.com ). "The European Union Series". 2008, 356 pp. ISBN 978-0-230-00142-8.
Ahead of the European elections, the 2003 edition of this book on the European Parliament has been updated and revised. Looking at the wide range of European Parliament structures, the publication describes the EP as a legislative power body and part of the vast system of EU governance. After describing the background and evolution of the European Parliament over time, the authors examine the question of elections and the institution's legitimacy, political parties, internal set-up, formal powers, influence and decision-making process. Though case studies, the authors examine how the European Parliament operates, along with its rules, procedures, committee structures and informal interaction with the other bodies in the EU decision-making process, etc. This exhaustive book makes a useful contribution to the debate about democracy, legitimacy and parliamentary powers in the European Union.
(EPi)
*** BENOIT LECHAT, CHRISTOPHE DERENNE, PIERRE JONCKHEER (Eds.): Europe, le tournant vert. Les éditions namuroises (34 av. de la Lavande, B-5100 Namur, Belgium. Tel: (32-81) 724884 - Fax: 724912 - email: rene.robaye@fundp.ac.be - Internet http://www.etopia.be ). "Etopia, revue d'écologie politique" series, No. 5. 2009, 252 pp.
What is the point of politics? What is Europe for? What do the Greens achieve in Europe? These questions are answered in the latest issue of Etopia, published by the Belgian 'Centre d'Animation et de Recherche en Ecologie Politique' with the support of the Green Group of European Parliament, answers which view the world through green-tinted specs. Benoît Lechat and Christophe Derenne explain in the introduction that the European Union now looks as far as an increasing number of people are concerned, as "more part of the problem than a solution". "Turning in on itself" is gaining in strengthen and one can legitimately fear seeing this increase when the June 2009 election results start coming in. But never before has there been such a great need for collective EU action because, and this is just one factor in many, "Europe is the most pertinent level for creating a permanent structure to restructure European economies in a coordinated manner". But what type of economic restructuring would this be? The editors say that the current crisis results from "policies that have been carried out by all liberal, conservative, social democrat and Christian democrat parties for decades" and the "Green shift" the editors are calling for is not "economic recovery through green consumption," that amounts to little more than "installing solar panels on all rooftops and making all farming organic". No, the "Green shift" involves a combination of a change in daily life for all and sundry, a stronger role for local authorities, strengthening of all forms of solidarity from the local to the global, and redefining how well-being is measured. These are some of the issues addressed in the first part of the review, which includes articles by Pierre Jonckheer MEP (who is leaving the European Parliament to chair the European Green Foundation), Alain Lipietz MEP, Daniel Cohn-Bendit MEP, and experts like Pierre Defraigne, Philippe Pochet and Eric De Keuleneer. In the second half of the review, the platform is handed to a number of people who work with the Green Group and explain the work they do and how 'their' MEPs make a tangible contribution in a number of crucial domains ranging from social Europe to the "permanent re-founding" of fundamental freedoms, via trade liberalisation, energy policy, climate change and immigration. Aside from the clear activist nature of the subject matter, there are many ideas expressed here which deserve attention and consideration by Greens and non-Greens alike.
(MT)
*** L'Europe en formation. Revue d'études sur la construction européenne et le fédéralisme - Journal of Studies on European Integration and Federalism. Centre international de formation européenne (10 av. des Fleurs, F-06000 Nice. Tel: (33-4) 93979397 - Fax: 93979398 - email: europe.formation@cife.eu - Internet: http: //http://www.europeenformation.eu ). 2009, No. 351, 200 pp, €24. Annual subscription: €35.
This spring issue of the review set up by Alexandre Marc, the leading advocate of personalise extreme federalism, is especially full of delights. First of all the reader will find a very detailed special report on ten years of the euro edited by Jean-Jacques Rey, honorary director of the National Bank of Belgium (son of Jean Rey, erstwhile president of the European Commission), with no fewer than seven essays by researchers and practitioners who together confirm a highly positive balance sheet for the first decade of the European common currency. Jean-Claude Juncker was the first to point this out in the speech he made to the European Parliament on 13 January 2009, although the man who is also the president of the International European Training Centre warns that in order to ensure the single currency's credibility and long-term benefits, the partners of what is "first and foremost a political project" will have to "make the most of the euro's second decade to finetune Economic and Monetary Union by strengthening its political bodies both domestically and in respect of the wider world ". The financial and economic tsunami of recent months is only addressed indirectly in the special report but it is examined elsewhere in the review by a former Commission man, Paul N. Goldschmidt, who considers the financial crisis "as a type of parable" comparing it with AIDS, cancer and flu epidemics and suggesting a suitable medicine to relieve the symptoms and actually cure the patient over time. There is also an extremely interesting study by a sociologist and a political analyst of "the disillusion with the idea of happy globalisation," and a short article by Ferdinand Kinsky making a nuanced assessment of the current Czech Presidency of the EU.
(MT)
*** The Federalist Debate. Papers on Federalism in Europe and the World. Einstein Center for International Studies (26 via Schina, I-10144 Turin. Tel/Fax: (+39-011) 4732843 - email: federalist.debate@libero.it - Internet: http://www.federalist.debate.org ). 2009, No. 1, 64 pp. Annual subscription: €15.
Always brimming with ideas and subjects under discussion around the world, the latest issue of this federalist publication includes several articles connected with the financial and economic crisis which deserve attention, starting with one by Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa dissecting "market fundamentalism and the abdication of politics" that led to the tsunami whose devastating impact we are currently wading through. Padoa-Schioppa used to be Italy's economy and finance minister. He currently chairs the International Monetary Fund's Financial and Monetary Committee. In the article, he slams the narrow 'pensée unique' that worshipped deregulation, even at the European Commission, as the alpha and omega of economic policy. Considering the protectionist threats that he believes are to be found everywhere, including in the United States under Barack Obama, Lucio Levy defends the idea of new world monetary order that should emerge from the current crisis, based on the example of the eurozone. He says the US dollar should be replaced by a basket of currencies that in turn should give rise to a world currency unit - as happened with the European Economic Community's Ecu, the pale, forgotten forerunner of the euro. This idea is echoed and developed by Antonio Mosconi, who explains that other essential elements of a root-and-branch reform are turning the International Monetary Fund into a true ministerial economic committee of the United Nations, like the ECOFIN Council in the European Union; and turning the Bank of International Settlements into a genuine central bank "of the system of monetary systems,” which would then be made responsible, like the European Central Bank in the eurozone, for monitoring and supervising the banks and the financial world.
(MT)
*** The Federalist. A Political Review. Edif (8 Villa Glori, I-27100 Pavia. Internet: http://www.thefederalist.eu ). 2008, No. 2, 169 pp. Annual subscription: €35 (Europe), €50 (elsewhere).
This issue of the publication close to the Movimento Federalista Europeo starts with reflection on the 'New Dimension of the Nuclear Threat,' that is more acute than in the 1980s. It argues that the EU is ideally placed to help get the world out of the current deadlock through "voluntary and peaceful transfer of nuclear sovereignty by a nation state to a superior level of government". Other articles look at the democratic principles mentioned in the Lisbon Treaty and multi-level sovereignty.
(MT)
*** THIERRY CORNILLET: Guide des aides de l'Union européenne. Edition 2009. European Parliament (Internet: http://www.cornillet.net ). 2009, 262 pp.
Updated on 1 January 2009, this is a very useful and practical guide (only available in French) by a French MEP to the "labyrinth" of EU aid, programmes, projects and funds through which the European Union aims to be a partner of ordinary Europeans and their companies. It can be downloaded for free from the above website.
(PBo)