This heavyweight tome, catchily subtitled Yearbook of the Institutions of the European Union and of other European Organisations is now in its fifteenth edition. There is no indication of when the previous edition appeared; the page footer entitles it Euro‐Guide 1996‐97. There is no introduction to place the volume or its editors in context, although there is a short note on how the information has been collected: mainly through letters and telephone calls to the organizations concerned. The original language of the collection was French, and translations into English and German have either been supplied by the organizations themselves or been undertaken by the publishers.
The yearbook is in two parts and is preceded by a quite lengthy contents list laid out in three columns, as is the pattern for the whole volume: French first column, English second column, and German third column. The contents are interspersed with a few pages of Brussels‐based advertising, starting with an attractive picture of a BMW. Where the contents are broken down into sub‐contents there is no language discrimination as there is no alphabetical order for any of the three languages: luckily the contents lists are not so long as to make scanning down them too arduous a chore. Next comes a section entitled “Practical information”, beginning with a list of abbreviations used in the text, followed by the value of the ECU against the member states’ currencies as at 31 March1996; press and information offices of the EU; embassies in the member states; national days around the world; and holidays in the institutions of the EU (although only those based in Belgium and Luxembourg are covered).
Part 1, just under one‐third of the volume, describes the institutions of the European Union in an apparent diplomatic order with the European Parliament first, then the Council, the Commission and its ancillary bodies, the Court of Justice, etc. These are followed by other non‐EU organizations, together with 20 other European governmental organizations, such as the Council of Europe, European Patent Office, etc. The legally‐based accounts of the functions of the organizations condense succinctly quite considerable amounts of information. However, such descriptions can be found in other places, so the real value of the book has to be in Part 2 which is a directory of European governmental organizations and of over 300 European non‐governmental organizations which contribute to European integration, plus the diplomatic corps, and establishments offering European studies postgraduate courses in the member states and elsewhere; which means some 1,000 organizations are included. The directory supplies the names of the persons “in charge” (the translation element is not hard to spot) and these amount to around 7,000 names with addresses, and telephone and fax numbers.
There are 70 pages for the European Parliament and you can usefully find out who is on which committee ‐ although you have to work out that here you read across the page to find out members and not solely down the language columns. You can also find out who is a member of which interparliamentary delegation, for example the delegation for relations with Slovenia. This is followed by the names of the leading staff of the Parliament. The addresses of the national parliaments are given, and also those of the European federations of political parties, and finally that of the European Ombudsman. The next section concerns the Council of the European Union and starts with the permanent representatives to the EU, followed by its general secretariat. The 90 pages devoted to the European Commission begin with the individual commissioners and their responsibilities, and then give the names and functions of the main officials. The style is repeated for all the other European organizations and agencies, including a large range of non‐governmental organizations. A list of universities which offer postgraduate European Studies courses is given. Associations, foundations, and institutes promoting European co‐operation are detailed, and European prizes are also described.
Following the directory there are four annexes: a chronology since 1950 of important dates in the process of European co‐operation; a useful list of official publications of the European Communities (should this be Union now?) and of other European periodical publications; initials and abbreviations ‐ a vital source for anyone trying to weave through the European maze; and finally a name index, useful if you have met a European high official or parliamentarian and don’t know how to fit them into the picture.
Howlers? Yes, one in the descriptive Part 1 jumped out: British readers will be surprised to see that in this 1997 edition there is a description of the polytechnic system and courses, despite polytechnics having become universities in 1992. Items like this make one feel doubtful as to how much of the descriptive text is rigorously revised and there is no mention of editors linked to the individual member states to ensure such text revisions. However, regularly revising this huge amount of detailed material must be a gigantic task, especially with elections, people changing jobs, etc. The value of the Euro‐Guide must be in all its detailed names and addresses and the brief descriptions of so many organizations, giving a very comprehensive coverage and including some quite obscure organizations which never‐theless could be just what an enquirer is seeking.
An enquirer might find that although the contents pages and the different sections do follow on logically, there is such a dense mass of information, rather boringly presented, that it is not reader‐friendly, and many would probably need the assistance of library staff to find the details they were looking for. If an enquirer did browse through it, they would find a great deal of fascinating information about European organizations and associations, but to do this most fruitfully they would probably need to know something already about Europe and the history of its organizational development.
To summarize, this volume is a valuable directory source of information with which to answer detailed queries about European organizations, and so, if you get such enquiries regularly, it would be worth the considerable investment required.
