Europe et Coopération ... oser une autre politique
Why this book ?
Its purpose is to clarify the reasons why international cooperation is struggling in the wrong way, plagued by “correct but wrong thinking” (first chapter). It takes European cooperation as a case study and endeavours to show how European cooperation could recover and take the lead by getting rid of its crippling fears, reviewing its strategies and changing its methods (second chapter).
Proposals are there (third chapter), the Commission leaders should merely decide to enforce them, forsaking the easy route of “laisser-faire” when dealing with their counterparts in the developing countries and the bureaucratic comfort of the “Réglement” when managing the daily tasks of cooperation.
The civil servants and consultants working with the Commission, suffer to an enormous extent from the wastage of their efforts due to the system's inefficiency. The widespread mediocrity of the results and the growing misuse of aid become less and less acceptable in a dramatically unstable world background of continuing poverty and growing competition. This is why it is necessary to stir up this awkward and indecisive organisation. However, this task requires much more than the usual lamentations of cooperation professionals. What is called for is an informed public and reaction from political decision-makers .
Billions of euros are at stake every year and also the hopes of hundreds of millions of people who knock at Europe's door without getting an adequate response from Cooperation policies. In the end, the vital question raised is that of Europe’s capacity to share equitably and eventually, continue to play a leading role in a changing world.
This book is rather sharp in tone, we admit. We would, however, be glad if its arguments were taken as signs of trust and faith in the capacity to react of European institutions, an analysis that might contribute in healing the serious “behaviour insufficiency” of a cooperation policy that could, eventually, become the pillar of a great European foreign policy.