Grande Europe : vous avez dit frontières ?
Revue de la Documentation française,
N° 1, Octobre 2008, Paris.
Voici le sommaire détaillé de la nouvelle publication de la Documentation française que nous conseillons à nos lecteurs de se procurer.
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1 - European Borders
A Conversation with Michel Foucher
Geographer and author of many books on borders, Michel Foucher first reiterates the concept of a Wider Europe’s debt to the Council of Europe, beginning with its real legal “meaning”. His approach does not, however, refrain from pointing out the wide differences in interpretation, depending on the country one is living in and whether it be within or outside the EU. On the inevitable question of Turkey’s and Russia’s future in Europe, the author replies that “in the eyes of Brussels, the European continent only makes sense with an articulation with 27-states European Union,” particularly important for these two large countries, heirs to powerful empires. He relies on facts and figures to point out that no other continent has experienced so many shifting borders, how the EU is endeavouring to deal with this challenge, the crisis between Russia and Georgia is once again putting Brussels to the test. The friable coexistence between openness (the emblematic example of the Schengen space), and new forms of partitioning (citing the no less symbolic case of the tensions in Belgium) provides an opportunity for reflecting on the fragilities of this pluralist Europe whose identity, according to our interviewee, merits an unambiguous response : yes the European identity does exist once one understands its fluctuating nature and the strength of its openness.
2 - Schengen, Free Space for the Circulation of Persons
The accords signed by five countries on June 14, 1985 creating a zone for the free movement of persons only came into effect ten years later. Following successive extensions, this zone now comprises 3.6 million kilometres populated by 400 million people in 24 countries, including two which are not part of the European Union (EU), Iceland and Norway. Belonging to Schengen space means to abolish police and customs formalities at all signatory state border crossings, but also to “compensate” for this measure by reinforcing border security outside the space, in particular by instituting a so-called Schengen visa which permits third country nationals to circulate freely in all the countries concerned, although the conditions for granting this have become increasingly stringent over the years. The tightening of controls, moreover, necessitates greater police and judicial cooperation between the states. They rely on the Schengen Information System (SIS) made available to all gendarmeries or police stations in the space which provides information on persons wanted, missing or forbidden entry, as well as on lost or stolen goods. This mainly repressive system cannot, however, provide a solution to the problem of illegal immigration, on which the countries of the EU have not been able to agree to a common policy.
3 - The European Neighbourhood Policy
The European Union only set up the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2003, whose objective, primarily security, consisted in preventing conflicts along its borders by making it possible for neighboring states partially to integrate into the single European market and to consolidate political ties in exchange for structural reforms. The ENP was originally intended for new eastern European neighbors after the double enlargement of 2004-2007. However, at the request of France and Spain, it was extended to south Mediterranean countries, already members of the Barcelona Process, having maritime borders with the EU. Today, ten Mediterranean countries and six ex-Soviet nations are eligible. Russia, with which the EU shares its longest external border, declined the invitation to ENP membership, preferring a “strategic partnership”. To date, only twelve out of sixteen members have elaborated three to five year plans of action which set up priorities on reforms to be undertaken, a condition for European financial aid. This takes place through the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), whose 2007-2013 budget is 11.181 billion Euros, with two-thirds to go to countries in the south. This may perhaps explain why insufficiencies in the ENP were brutally made evident during the Russo-Georgian crisis of the summer of 2008.
4 - Cross-border Cooperation An Increasingly Well-Identified Object
Edith Lhomel
A term covering a wide range of relations between local authorities on both sides of the borders of European countries, the generous objective of cross-border cooperation (CC) is to transform national boundaries into just as many hinges. Areas of exchange and projects, some of these “cross-border areas,” given impetus by progress in the building of Europe (Single market, Schengen space, east European enlargement, European Neighbourhood Policy), have gradually taken on their own identity. Benefiting from the December 22, 1981, Madrid Convention, and, through the work of the Council of Europe, from an indispensable legal framework providing legitimacy and power, since 2006 the CC also uses a legal tool which, elaborated at the European level (European CC group), should enable it to resolve the headaches of existing diverse legislation and administrative divisions. Lastly, the role played by the fourth-generation Interreg program in the 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy, illustrates the desire on the part of the member states to increase the role of this proximity cooperation. Greater implication of local populations in the future of these areas, only progressively emerging from marginality, and the integration of the latter into national and European management policies remain to be achieved.
5 - The Basque Eurocity The Dream of a European Class Metropolis
Céline Bayou
The aim of the Basque Eurocity, Bayonne – San Sebastian, created in 1993, is to transform an approximately fifty kilometer corridor into a medium-sized cross-border agglomeration, endowed with an efficient infrastructure. It is a question of both benefiting from the trend towards eliminating borders and preventing the marginalization of the area, a main artery between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the continent. However, despite efforts, the Eurocity is finding it difficult to implement its projects. It has, indeed, come up against difficulties which impede development : this area is known for the sharp socio-economic disparities on opposite sides of the border, with a populated and industrialized south and a less populated north turned towards service industries, particularly tourism. Levels of decentralization are different on both sides of the border, obliging organizations of diverse types and levels to work together. It is undeniable that political divides (particularly on the French side) often delay the implementation of some projects, while the actions of the Consorcio Bidasoa-Txingudi, a communal cross-border cooperation initiative, albeit a Eurocity member, seems to compete with the latter. Whereas a border culture persists in the area, the Eurocity has not yet managed to forge a real identity, as perhaps revealed by the absence of a common language.
6 - French Border Workers in Switzerland
Hervé Rayner
Shuttle migration between Switzerland and France is asymmetric : more than 100,000 French citizens cross the border daily to work compared to a few hundred Swiss in the opposite direction. Most of these border French arrive in the Geneva canton, mainly men employed in the tertiary sector who benefit from special work permits. Increasingly, they come from French areas far from the border, attracted by wages, which are definitely higher in Switzerland, despite seemingly dissuasive factors (length of the workweek, the high cost of health insurance, etc.). Their number has increased sharply over the last years, mainly because of Switzerland’s economic recovery but also with the implementation of accords between the latter and the European Union. That of 2002, in particular, put an end to the priority of Swiss citizens and residents on obtaining a labor contract. The border worker has had a positive effect on the Swiss (growth, tax receipts for the cantons) and French economies (reduced unemployment) but has also contributed to soaring real estate prices and congested infrastructures (transportation in particular), requiring increased cross-border institutional cooperation. * Doctor in Political Sciences, researcher in Osservatorio della Vita Politica, Bellizone (Suisse), member of Institut des sciences sociales du politique, CNRS/Paris X-Nanterre
7 - Italian Gorizia and Slovenian Nova Gorica A Reunified Bordertown
Jean-Arnault Dérens
No border, a least no material border, separates Gorizia-Nova Gorica : Slovenia’s 2004 EU entry, followed by Schengen space in 2007, led to the disappearance of one of the last signs of a geopolitical divide which had lasted over nearly half a century. Tossed back and forth through various conquests, the population, at a linguistic crossroads (Italian, German, Slovene), bears the scars of these traumatic events. Successively a Habsburg possession before its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, then a Italo-Austrian war zone in 1914-1918, its Slovenian element was repressed by the fascist regime and its Italian community persecuted by Tito partisans. In 1947, the town was divided between Italy and socialist Yugoslavia, the Iron Curtain did, however, remain porous. As early as the 1960s, Gorizia had become “the shopping mall” for the Yugoslavs, while the desire to transcend a divided Europe and to identify with Mitteleuropa led to joint projects. The shopping frenzy has changed direction since 1991 as Slovenia is less expensive, and its casinos have become an attraction. Today, the city looks like an orphan on a border long a source of exchanges. Cross-border cooperation encouraged by Brussels is difficult to consolidate as the two parts of the city are competing more than cooperating while memory still remain a divisive subject. * Editor of Courrier des Balkans
1 - European Borders
A Conversation with Michel Foucher
Geographer and author of many books on borders, Michel Foucher first reiterates the concept of a Wider Europe’s debt to the Council of Europe, beginning with its real legal “meaning”. His approach does not, however, refrain from pointing out the wide differences in interpretation, depending on the country one is living in and whether it be within or outside the EU. On the inevitable question of Turkey’s and Russia’s future in Europe, the author replies that “in the eyes of Brussels, the European continent only makes sense with an articulation with 27-states European Union,” particularly important for these two large countries, heirs to powerful empires. He relies on facts and figures to point out that no other continent has experienced so many shifting borders, how the EU is endeavouring to deal with this challenge, the crisis between Russia and Georgia is once again putting Brussels to the test. The friable coexistence between openness (the emblematic example of the Schengen space), and new forms of partitioning (citing the no less symbolic case of the tensions in Belgium) provides an opportunity for reflecting on the fragilities of this pluralist Europe whose identity, according to our interviewee, merits an unambiguous response : yes the European identity does exist once one understands its fluctuating nature and the strength of its openness.
2 - Schengen, Free Space for the Circulation of Persons
The accords signed by five countries on June 14, 1985 creating a zone for the free movement of persons only came into effect ten years later. Following successive extensions, this zone now comprises 3.6 million kilometres populated by 400 million people in 24 countries, including two which are not part of the European Union (EU), Iceland and Norway. Belonging to Schengen space means to abolish police and customs formalities at all signatory state border crossings, but also to “compensate” for this measure by reinforcing border security outside the space, in particular by instituting a so-called Schengen visa which permits third country nationals to circulate freely in all the countries concerned, although the conditions for granting this have become increasingly stringent over the years. The tightening of controls, moreover, necessitates greater police and judicial cooperation between the states. They rely on the Schengen Information System (SIS) made available to all gendarmeries or police stations in the space which provides information on persons wanted, missing or forbidden entry, as well as on lost or stolen goods. This mainly repressive system cannot, however, provide a solution to the problem of illegal immigration, on which the countries of the EU have not been able to agree to a common policy.
3 - The European Neighbourhood Policy
The European Union only set up the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2003, whose objective, primarily security, consisted in preventing conflicts along its borders by making it possible for neighboring states partially to integrate into the single European market and to consolidate political ties in exchange for structural reforms. The ENP was originally intended for new eastern European neighbors after the double enlargement of 2004-2007. However, at the request of France and Spain, it was extended to south Mediterranean countries, already members of the Barcelona Process, having maritime borders with the EU. Today, ten Mediterranean countries and six ex-Soviet nations are eligible. Russia, with which the EU shares its longest external border, declined the invitation to ENP membership, preferring a “strategic partnership”. To date, only twelve out of sixteen members have elaborated three to five year plans of action which set up priorities on reforms to be undertaken, a condition for European financial aid. This takes place through the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), whose 2007-2013 budget is 11.181 billion Euros, with two-thirds to go to countries in the south. This may perhaps explain why insufficiencies in the ENP were brutally made evident during the Russo-Georgian crisis of the summer of 2008.
4 - Cross-border Cooperation An Increasingly Well-Identified Object
Edith Lhomel
A term covering a wide range of relations between local authorities on both sides of the borders of European countries, the generous objective of cross-border cooperation (CC) is to transform national boundaries into just as many hinges. Areas of exchange and projects, some of these “cross-border areas,” given impetus by progress in the building of Europe (Single market, Schengen space, east European enlargement, European Neighbourhood Policy), have gradually taken on their own identity. Benefiting from the December 22, 1981, Madrid Convention, and, through the work of the Council of Europe, from an indispensable legal framework providing legitimacy and power, since 2006 the CC also uses a legal tool which, elaborated at the European level (European CC group), should enable it to resolve the headaches of existing diverse legislation and administrative divisions. Lastly, the role played by the fourth-generation Interreg program in the 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy, illustrates the desire on the part of the member states to increase the role of this proximity cooperation. Greater implication of local populations in the future of these areas, only progressively emerging from marginality, and the integration of the latter into national and European management policies remain to be achieved.
5 - The Basque Eurocity The Dream of a European Class Metropolis
Céline Bayou
The aim of the Basque Eurocity, Bayonne – San Sebastian, created in 1993, is to transform an approximately fifty kilometer corridor into a medium-sized cross-border agglomeration, endowed with an efficient infrastructure. It is a question of both benefiting from the trend towards eliminating borders and preventing the marginalization of the area, a main artery between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the continent. However, despite efforts, the Eurocity is finding it difficult to implement its projects. It has, indeed, come up against difficulties which impede development : this area is known for the sharp socio-economic disparities on opposite sides of the border, with a populated and industrialized south and a less populated north turned towards service industries, particularly tourism. Levels of decentralization are different on both sides of the border, obliging organizations of diverse types and levels to work together. It is undeniable that political divides (particularly on the French side) often delay the implementation of some projects, while the actions of the Consorcio Bidasoa-Txingudi, a communal cross-border cooperation initiative, albeit a Eurocity member, seems to compete with the latter. Whereas a border culture persists in the area, the Eurocity has not yet managed to forge a real identity, as perhaps revealed by the absence of a common language.
6 - French Border Workers in Switzerland
Hervé Rayner
Shuttle migration between Switzerland and France is asymmetric : more than 100,000 French citizens cross the border daily to work compared to a few hundred Swiss in the opposite direction. Most of these border French arrive in the Geneva canton, mainly men employed in the tertiary sector who benefit from special work permits. Increasingly, they come from French areas far from the border, attracted by wages, which are definitely higher in Switzerland, despite seemingly dissuasive factors (length of the workweek, the high cost of health insurance, etc.). Their number has increased sharply over the last years, mainly because of Switzerland’s economic recovery but also with the implementation of accords between the latter and the European Union. That of 2002, in particular, put an end to the priority of Swiss citizens and residents on obtaining a labor contract. The border worker has had a positive effect on the Swiss (growth, tax receipts for the cantons) and French economies (reduced unemployment) but has also contributed to soaring real estate prices and congested infrastructures (transportation in particular), requiring increased cross-border institutional cooperation. * Doctor in Political Sciences, researcher in Osservatorio della Vita Politica, Bellizone (Suisse), member of Institut des sciences sociales du politique, CNRS/Paris X-Nanterre
7 - Italian Gorizia and Slovenian Nova Gorica A Reunified Bordertown
Jean-Arnault Dérens
No border, a least no material border, separates Gorizia-Nova Gorica : Slovenia’s 2004 EU entry, followed by Schengen space in 2007, led to the disappearance of one of the last signs of a geopolitical divide which had lasted over nearly half a century. Tossed back and forth through various conquests, the population, at a linguistic crossroads (Italian, German, Slovene), bears the scars of these traumatic events. Successively a Habsburg possession before its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, then a Italo-Austrian war zone in 1914-1918, its Slovenian element was repressed by the fascist regime and its Italian community persecuted by Tito partisans. In 1947, the town was divided between Italy and socialist Yugoslavia, the Iron Curtain did, however, remain porous. As early as the 1960s, Gorizia had become “the shopping mall” for the Yugoslavs, while the desire to transcend a divided Europe and to identify with Mitteleuropa led to joint projects. The shopping frenzy has changed direction since 1991 as Slovenia is less expensive, and its casinos have become an attraction. Today, the city looks like an orphan on a border long a source of exchanges. Cross-border cooperation encouraged by Brussels is difficult to consolidate as the two parts of the city are competing more than cooperating while memory still remain a divisive subject. * Editor of Courrier des Balkans