cover image Our Europe: The Community and National Development

Our Europe: The Community and National Development

Jaques Delors, Jacques Delors. Verso, $30 (166pp) ISBN 978-0-86091-380-1

If Delors's bold vision for a unified Europe takes effect, the 12 member nations of the European Community will soon have a common foreign policy with decisions taken by majority vote, plus a shorter work week, with workers choosing their own flexible schedules. As president of the European Commission--the policy-planning wing of the European Community--Delors is the prime architect of Western Europe's political and monetary union. In this concise, pithy manifesto, first published in 1988, Delors (writing with Clisthene, his team of researchers) advocates a mixed economy and a new social contract among trade unions, employers and the state. He also lashes France's elitist administrative and educational system and the panicky chauvinism of French right-wingers who resist globalization. Using Norway, Sweden and Austria as models, he outlines measures designed to reverse France's high unemployment rate. (July)