Month: June 2018

With the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957, some European governments chose to pursue a common external trade policy in order to have greater weight in international discussions, notably when facing the Americans. They consequently created a “common customs tariff” whose rate was determined through international negotiations conducted within the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), which became the WTO (World Trade Organization) in 1995. The negotiations were led by the European Commission working in close collaboration with member states.

During the 1960s and 1970s the Portuguese clandestine political movements that opposed the dictatorship in power operated two radio stations­—Rádio Portugal Livre and Rádio Voz da Liberdade—which played a significant role in furnishing alternative versions of events taking place in Portugal and in the international arena during the Cold War. Broadcasting from Romania and Algeria, the two stations were set up as the colonial war between Portugal and the independence movements emerged in the African territories under its rule. Shortwaves crossed European inner and outer boundaries, and connected the global, the imperial and the national contexts in a transnational way.

The Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC), founded in Paris in 1909, had an important role in the transnational production and circulation of knowledge regarding road engineering and management, and traffic regulation. The Ninth World Road Congress, held in Lisbon in 1951, assessed the progress made since The Hague Congress (1938). But it also had a national, Portuguese agenda: it served to affirm the political and technical relevance of both Estado Novo dictatorship and the Portuguese highway engineers.

Over the past 50 years, the European natural gas grid has slowly developed from smaller local grids to a large, almost all-encompassing technical infrastructure. This development can be seen as one of the prime examples of successful European technical integration across the Iron Curtain. However, in Northern Europe there is what may be seen as a gap in the European natural gas grid, and this entry discusses some of the unsuccessful attempts to bridge this gap.

The evolution of the exploitation of forests in Finland fits into the logics of state and private firms. It is also characterized by the importance of technology transfers. They accompany major evolutions in this crucial activity for the country, and put Finland at the crossroads of multiple influences and actors’ initiatives. Forestry is an essential activity for the country, which is is one of the most forested countries in Europe, with trees covering two-thirds of its area. Today it plays a key role in many European projects and in arenas like Forest Europe, a discussion platform on the sustainable development of forests.

The article questions how Bulgarian yoghurt has come to signify an “authentic” foodstuff. By studying how the authenticity of Bulgarian yoghurt was created over time and in different places, the author reveals that food is not just nutrition but also a cultural and political construction. A chronological approach traces the key actors and events leading to the authentication of a food product, which has come to symbolise a country;

L’expulsion des Allemands de Tchécoslovaquie en 1945-1946 vient mettre un terme à la présence pluriséculaire de populations germanophones dans cette partie de l’Europe médiane. Le différend germano-tchèque au sujet de ces expulsions reste fort tout au long du second xx^e siècle. Les souffrances endurées par les Tchécoslovaques sous la domination nazie et celles subies par les populations germanophones au moment de leur expulsion alimentent depuis 1945 un fort ressentiment de part et d’autre. Cette rancœur est longtemps renforcée chez les expulsés par le silence que le régime communiste impose sur cette épineuse question en Tchécoslovaquie, laissant à l’Allemagne de l’Ouest le soin d’accorder des réparations. Dans ces conditions, l’amorce d’un processus de réconciliation est presque impossible. Les discussions engagées depuis 1989 ont toutefois permis de revenir à une relation plus apaisée, davantage en phase avec l’évolution des mémoires de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Europe.

Le développement du téléphone en Russie tsariste est révélateur des ambitions et des faiblesses de l’État autocratique. La dépendance aux technologies étrangères oblige les autorités à céder la téléphonie urbaine aux acteurs privés, tout en espérant imposer le monopole de l’opérateur public sur les lignes à longue distance envisagées comme un outil propice pour le gouvernement de l’immense territoire de l’empire. L’histoire de la téléphonie en Russie révèle donc l’imbrication des enjeux technologiques, économiques et politiques. La capacité d’adaptation des autorités au marché concurrentiel se traduit par une instabilité du dispositif réglementaire qui freine l’expansion du téléphone dans ce pays.