Europe - new material (45)
01 January 2004
In the name of Europe, Peo Hansen. Race and Class Volume 45 no 3 2004, pp49-62. Hansen focuses on the long running debate surrounding attempts to define Europe's cultural and geographical boundaries in the face of potential future enlargement. He argues that the cultivated view of European identity and citizenship invariably "pertains exclusively to a transnational white ethnicity". Thus, in turn, it has a twofold impact in both ostracising millions already residing within the EU, and damaging the chances of new membership applications. He points to Turkey which has suffered at the hands of both geographical and cultural border distinctions, and also to Morocco whose application was comprehensively rejected on the basis that only European states may join the EU: "the European Clause". It is in this context that Hansen highlights the glaring inconsistencies within the practical application of these two definitions. Spain still controls two North African islands (Melilla and Ceuta) situated a mere few hundred metres from a country deemed non-European (Morocco). Islands which Hansen argues are, "in some respects, more integrated into the EU than are the non-EMU members of Britain, Denmark and Sweden". Similarly there are numerous "Overseas Countries and Territories" located as far away as South America (Guyana, Falklands/Malvinas), the Caribbean (Martinique) and the Indian Ocean (Réunion) whose citizens carry European passports and enjoy the full accompanying rights. Thus can countries such as France and Britain fully comply with "the European clause"? To Hansen the limitation of European identity and the EU's corresponding disinclination to acknowledge the true extent of its territory is invariably linked to its similarly "forgotten" colonial past. For the EU to fully recognise its colonial past would also be to recognise that "crimes of genocide, slavery and exploitation were also carried out in the name of Europe and justified with reference to the racial and cultural superiority of Europeans". Hansen argues the need for further debate around this issue is "urgent" yet claims "there are no real indications of it emerging any time soon".
Recent developments in European Convention law, Philip Leach. Legal Action January 2004, pp23-28. Summary of cases heard at the European Court of Human Rights, between May and November 2003, which have particular relevance to the UK. Two such cases are those of Pat Finucane, shot dead in Belfast by masked men in 1989, and Michael Menson who was killed in a racially motivated attack in 1997.
New EC discrimination regulations reviewed, Gay Moon. Legal Action December 2003, pp26-29. Discusses the Race Directive 2000/43/EC and the Employment Directive 2000/78/EC, and their implementation. Moon argues that they have served only to further complicate and decrease the accessibility of the law.