*** La Revue nouvelle (126 bld Général Jacques, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6403107). 2001, No. 6, 115 pp, 350 FB, 65 FF. Annual subscription: 3,000 FB.
As is de rigueur under the Belgian Presidency, La Revue nouvelle, a monthly socio-political and cultural review founded in 1945, has dedicated all its column space in this issue to the issue of the construction of Europe. It starts off with an editorial by the "responsible editor", Théo Hachez, who has the gift of concocting seductive headings - "The Angel's Leap" on this occasion - but whose ideas on Europe are often as disturbing as they are interesting. This is the case in the very first line: "The people who wanted to put off radical questioning of the European political and institutional model until tomorrow on the grounds that such an outpouring would put the Community acquis at risk; or using the pretext of enlargement; or through claims to technocratic efficiency seem to have lost the battle (…)". This statement is not necessarily false since it is true that a debate over the objectives behind the European project has now been launched and the Laeken European Summit will be outlining the road ahead in December. But it is really such a lucid and honest statement when later on, the editorialist not only goes as far as saying that the current destiny of the Council of Ministers - Parliament - Commission triangle has been (…) officially challenged", but is also bold enough to make the following verdict: "Self-proclaimed holder of Community virtues, but also the symbol of a democratic deficit, the Commission, and its leadership role, will no longer be at the heart of the debate on the new arrangements, a debate that now outstrips the Commission"? He immediately points out: "Returned to its original mandate, it will stop cluttering up the European horizon that it has unceasingly incarnated since the end of the Delors era". There can be no denying that the writer has found his scapegoat. Nobody, not even some agents of the Institution, denies that the Commission can and should be criticised, but by moving on from there to take pleasure in blaming the Commission for all the ills of the world, one runs the risk of damaging one's own case, even if it is probably based on the best of intentions. Théo Hachez has taken that risk. Is it really the Commission under Jacques Santer in the past and under Romano Prodi today that has resisted such a fundamental political and institutional debate taking place since it could undermine its technocratic power? Isn't it more national governments - some to a greater extent than others - that have been avoiding the issue for far too long, no doubt to the delight of many Commissioners and officials? Is it so certain that if the institutional triangle is remodelled, it will be the Commission that will have to take more of backseat role, and not the Council? And is the Commission destined to return "to it original mandate" that never existed apart from in the brains of some Gaullists from the flamboyant epoch who had so very little support outside of France? Enough! The excesses are insignificant and in discussions like this, so are the approximative aspects. A pity, since when Théo Hachez asserts that the European project "has to offer significant compensation in terms of well-being, redistribution and reciprocal democratic guarantees"…"for the loss of sovereignty (and, therefore, citizenship) that interdependency implies", he is on the right track. As he is when he concludes that "one thing that is certain today, is that any societal project involves a political European dimension". But it is a handful of national political leaders who need to persuaded of this, rather than the Commission!
Michel Theys
*** L'Europe en formation. Hommage à Alexandre Marc. Centre international de formation européenne (10 av. des Fleurs, F-06000 Nice. Tel.: (33-4) 93979397 - Fax: 93979398 - e-mail: europe.formation@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http: //http://www.cife.org ). "Les Cahiers du fédéralisme" series, No. 319-320. 2001, 319 pp, 19.80 euro, 130 FF. Annual subscription: 185FF.
This edition of Cahiers du Fédéralisme - a series launched by Alexandre Marc and currently edited by Ferdinand Kinsky, Jean-Pierre Gouzy, Arnaud Marc-Lipiansky and Frédéric Lépine - is a collection of testimonies from people who were closely acquainted with the great federalist Alexandre Marc (who died last year at the age of 96), and from other people who met him, if only for a brief encounter, but who were greatly impressed by the meeting. A "brilliant and rigorous intelligence", "great doctrinal firmness" and even, for some people, a "rather oppressive" intransigence, a warm "stubborn" man: these are the descriptions that, as Frédéric Lépine notes, are most commonly used when people describe how they remember Alexandre Marc. The British federalist John Pinder remembers the "combative militant" who slammed the "flattened, truncated, functional, possible, Hamiltonian and God-fearing federalism" in March 1956, while Raimondo Cagiano de Azevedo and Edmondo Paolini analyse the different schools of federalism, the "Proudhonesque and Hamiltonian" school of Marc and another great federalist, Altiero Spinelli. Jacques-René Rabier recalls the man who, when visiting Brussels, "filled the corridors (of the Commission) with his passionate voice", galvanising the "militant officials that we were".
Alexandre Marc's "personalism" is analysed by several of the writers of this lively and affectionate tribute such as Michel Albert or François Saint-Ouen (Secretary of the Denis de Rougemont Foundation in Lausanne) who describes the Marc-de Rougemont meeting "in 1930, in circumstances which each remembers in a different way". On that occasion, Marc gave de Rougemont a manifesto that ended with the phrase "Neither individualists nor collectivists, we are all personalists!", which made such an impression on Denis de Rougemont "that he was instantly converted". Hartmut Marhold recalls Jacques Delors' "personalist commitment", while Jean-Pierre Gouzy and Ferdinand Kinsky explain in detail the path followed by Marc and his creations (such as the Centre international de formation européenne) … There is another testimony that should not be missed in the book, by the young Gilles Gantelet, who is now Commissioner Loyola de Palacio's spokesperson and who talks of the "revelation", for him, of meeting Alexandre Marc at a Summer University in Aosta. A book to be recommended to all who are interested in the roots of the European project. (MG)
*** FREDERIC BOZO: Two Strategies for Europe. De Gaulle, the United States and the Atlantic Alliance. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706, United States. Tel: (1-800) 4626420 - Fax 4295748 - Internet: http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com ). 2000, 275 pp. ISBN 0-8476-9531-X.
The original French version of this book was written and published in the mid 1990s by a French Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Nantes and explores the tortuous relations between France at the time of General de Gaulle and the United States. Based on substantial French and US archive material the book has been warmly praised by Stanley Hoffmann, of Harvard University and considered worthy of translation into English and distribution by a US publisher. This version has been updated, with Frédéric Bozo adding a new concluding chapter to the book's in-depth analysis of the motives that encouraged the 'father' of the Fifth Republic to distance himself from Washington to the extent of withdrawing France from the Atlantic Alliance (which the author sees as an effort to establish a greater role for France, but also as a concern to construct an independent Europe). (MT)
*** GENEVIEVE DUCHENNE, VINCENT DUJARDIN (Ed.): Paul van Zeeland et les questions politiques et économiques de son temps. Institut d'études européennes de l'Université catholique de Louvain (1 place des Doyens, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve). "Travaux de l'Institut d'études européennes" series, No. 8. 2001, 155 pp.
An important figure in contemporary Belgium, the former Prime Minster, Paul van Zeeland, has largely disappeared from memory. In this book, historians recall the path followed by this politician, who was congratulated by Keynes for the way in which he stabilised the Belgian franc in 1935. He played a far from negligible role in the beginning of the European project, as this book outlines. (MT)
*** Gauche européenne Nuova europa (26 via Tullio Martello, I-00191 Rome. E-mail: gaucheeuropéenne@tiscalinet.it). 2001, No. 34, 26 pp.
The latest edition of the review published in French and Italian by the Gauche européenne - Mouvement pour les Etats-Unis d'Europe contains articles analysing the defeat of the left in the Italian elections of 13 May 2001, the German Social Democratic Party's document on the future of Europe (Jean-Pierre Gouzy notes that Gerhard Schröder has "published a genuine European action programme"), the prospects for a European political culture (Giorgio Ruffolo, rapporteur at the European Parliament, makes suggestions for firming up the measures evoked in the EU Treaty). Anna Maria Campogrande calls "For a debate on language" slamming the "slide towards the linguistic and cultural domination" of English, an issue also touched on in the review last year. (MG)
*** FRITZ BREUSS, GERHARD FINK, STEFAN GRILLER (Ed.): Vom Schuman-Plan zum Vertrag von Amsterdam. Entstehung und Zukunft der EU. Springer Verlag (4-6 Sachsenplatz, P. O. Box 89, A-1201 Vienna. Tel: (43-1) 3302415-0 - Fax: 3302426 - E-mail: springer@springer.at - Internet: http://www.springer.at ). 2000, 360 pp, 745 öS, 106 DM, 96.50 FS. ISBN 3-211-83522-9.
To celebrate the 50the anniversary of the unveiling of the Schuman Plan, the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Europaforschung has brought together contributions in this book from a group of well-known historians and researchers in political science, economics and law, not only to illustrate the path taken by European integration, but also to discuss the problems of the moment taking an inter-disciplinary approach. Juliet Lodge, looks at the sharing of power between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament; John Pinder looks at changes to parliamentary democracy in Europe by evoking the way the European Parliament changed from the 1970s to the 1990s; while Roland Bieber considers the issue of the European Constitution. The principles behind the internal market, Economic and Monetary Union and its repercussions, the Court of Justice and its interpretation of Community law are also critically outlined. (CB)
*** GEOFFREY PRIDHAM (Ed.): The Dynamics of Democratisation. A comparative approach. Continuum (The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX. Tel: (44-20) 79220880 - Fax: 79220881 - Internet: http: //http://www.continuumbooks.com ). 2000, 330 pp, £55. ISBN 0-8264-5038-5.
Geoffrey Pridham, Professor of European Policy at Bristol University (where he is also Director of the European Studies Centre) makes a systematic comparison in this book of three categories of democratisation that have occurred in Europe since 1945: initially Italy and West Germany, followed by southern Europe in the middle of the 1970s and then Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. He emphasises the diversity of the historical backgrounds to these processes, the diversity of political experience and democratic traditions and also of economic development and the cultural environment. The author considers the democratisation process as a whole, not simply from the often evoked angle of the transition to democracy and the consolidation regime that accompanies the transition. He essentially focuses on the change in the political regime, but does not hesitate to discuss other forms of political change where they are particularly relevant to the discussion. He takes advantage of the wide range of European experience in democratisation to sketch a theory of the "interactive dynamic" of the democratisation process which, he argues, can fill gaps in existing theories which are inadequate for explaining the current political transition in Central and Eastern Europe. (CB)
*** Europarecht. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft (D-76520 Baden-Baden. Fax: (49-7221) 2104-27 - E-mail: nomos@nomos.de). 2000, No. 5, 155 pp.
This issue contains three articles on "aspects of the dogma of fundamental freedoms" (Prof. Hans D. Jarass, Münster); the relationship between centralised and decentralised safeguarding of individual rights in Community law (Carsten Nowak, Hamburg); and company aid in the light of the system that prevails in the Community (Prof. Christian Koenig and Claude Sander, Bonn). The second part of the review is, as always, given over to different aspects of case law from the European Court of Justice. The third part contains brief contributions on the subject of the reform of the Union's legal system (Prof. Hans-Jürgen Rabe, Hamburg/Brussels); reaction to the FPÖ joining the ruling government coalition in Austria (Stefanie Schmahl, Potsdam); and the duties on Member States that flow from primary and secondary law in terms of the equivalence of the first and second Staatsexamen with comparable qualifications at the end of study in foreign universities. (CB)
*** JEAN-MARC FAVRET: Droit et pratique de l'Union européenne. Gualino publishing house (Eistribution: Patrimoine, 168 rue du Noyer, B-1030 Brussels. Tel./Fax: (32-2) 7366847 - E-mail: Patrimoine@netsgo.be). 2001, 448 pp, 30.49 euro, 200 FF. ISBN 2-84200-435-3.
The third edition of this book explains modern developments in the European project in terms of the project envisaged by the founders of Europe, and helps the reader understand the Union's institutional and decision-making system. Lecturer at the Montesquieu University of Bordeaux, the author also very clearly explains in detail the different policies that have been designed and implemented in this connection and their financing mechanisms, not forgetting to outline the Community legal order. A very extensive bibliography and a table of French and EU case law round off the book. (LD)
*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Official Publications Office of the European Communities, L-2985, Luxembourg) has published the following documents:
*** Al servizio delle regioni, L'Europa in movimento. DG Regional Policy and DG Press and Communication. (200 rue de la Loi, B-1049 Brussels - Tel: (32-2) 2991111 - Internet: http: //inforegio.cec.eu.int). 2001, 34 pp. ISBN 92-894-0288-1.
"Above all, regional policy if an instrument of solidarity", explains Commissioner Barnier in the introduction to this brochure outlining Community regional policy, describing how it is implemented, who the beneficiaries are, its impact and relevant publications, etc.
*** Nordic.Regions @ Information.Society.eu. Florilège de projets au Danemark, en Finlande et en Suède. DG Regional Policy. (200 rue de la Loi, B-1049 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2991111 - Internet: http: /inforegio.cec.eu.int). 2001, 34 pp. ISBN 2-894-1089-2.
Talking about the "digital reflex", Commissioner Michel Barnier recalls that the information society is both a challenge and an opportunity for Europe. This is because in a specific region, Scandinavia, new technology has made it possible to extend competitiveness, invigorate the economy, reduce isolation and compensate for geographical handicaps. With eEurope, the European Union is attempting to ensure all citizens have access to IT, but one still needs to have the digital reflex. By outlining some success stories connected with the information society in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the brochure aims to publicise good practice and stimulate other such activities.
*** CODICES. User Guide. European Commission for Democracy through Law (Council of Europe, F-67075 Strasbourg cedex. Tel: (33-3) 88412000 - Internet: http: //http://www.coe.int ). August 2001, 27 pp.
This newsletter on constitutional law is a publication giving a regular listing of full texts in the case law of the European constitutional courts, along with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. Alongside a summary of the decisions, it has a CD-ROM to enable easy access to the full texts of the decisions, descriptions of the Courts and the legislation covering them, and the text of constitutions and Conventions. It exists in both French and English and covers some 3000 summarised constitutional decisions taken in 48 different countries, the full text of 3,550 decision in 23 languages (including 1,700 in English or French), 43 constitutions, 38 descriptions of constitutional courts or equivalent legal bodies, 40 laws governing these courts, and more besides.
*** Key to Europe. AEGEE (BP 72, B-1040 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2452300 - Fax: (32-2) 2456260 - E-mail: info@aegee@aegee.org - Internet: http: //http://www.aegee.org ). 2001, 67 pp.
The annual review of the "Association des Etats généraux des étudiants de l'Europe" could well make you want to go back to college again in order to have the opportunity of joining this useful and welcoming body whose "boss" is Vaclav Havel.
*** Work. The Magazine of the ILO. International Labour Organisation. (CH-1211 Geneva 22. Tel: (41-22) 7996938 - Fax: 7998572 - E-mail: pubvente@ilo.org - Internet: http://www.ilo.org/employment/coop ). June 2001, No. 39, 31 pp.
This issue contains a dossier on the ILO's new global report with articles on forced labour, slavery and human trafficking that "continue to haunt the present" and globalisation trade-union style, etc.
Reviews in brief
*** Le Monde des droits de l'homme. 2001, No. 55, Brussels. This issue of the bi-monthly publication of the NGO "Le Monde des droits de l'homme vu de Bruxelles" covers subjects such as the global and European Kyoto challenge; NGOs' criticisms of the Commission on Human Rights; sects in western Europe; "Towards a democratic planetary climate policy"; and the Taliban who are causing "indignation and concern in Asia" (but this issue dates back to May/June)… *** La Lettre. Fidh, September 2001, Paris. This publication from the Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme covers burning issues such as women's rights, the Lukachenco "disappeared" in Byelorussia, the Czech Republic before the Human Rights Committee, etc.