Lettori case 'an embarrassment to the EU'

David Petrie meets with Jude Kirton-Darling MEP

BRUSSELS – A Petitions Committee in the European parliament on Monday urged a re-examination of discriminatory laws against foreign lecturers working in Italy, (lettori).

 Committee Chair Cecilia Wikström expressed her disdain at the lack of resolution provided to the decades old complaint brought by union leader David Petrie, one of the longest-ever running petitions to the European parliament. The drawn-out nature of the case and the “insufficient” latest decision from the commission went “too far even for my Swedish iceberg attitude,” in Ms Wikström’s words, leaving the petitioners in a state of “limbo.”

 Whilst stating that she did not wish to cause a rift between the European Parliament and Commission, Ms Wikström did go as far as to state that the case constituted “an embarrassment to the European institutions at this point.”

 Mr Petrie brought the case to the committee under the renewed strength of a material error made by the Commission in a letter of June 2014, which confused prior ECJ (European Court of Justice) judgements on the case and consequently had no merit. He went on to argue that the blatantly discriminant nature of the Italian laws had already been condemned on several occasions by the European courts, and yet the 91 members of his union continue to suffer from pay cuts of up to 60 percent, job insecurity and a lack of pension contributions.

 Mr Francisco Perez-Flores’s reply on behalf of the European Commission was contended by Wilkström alongside MEPs Jude Kirton-Darling and Jarosław Wałęsa of the UK and Poland respectively. Mr Petrie himself declared the Commission’s answer to his complaint incomprehensible, and requested a reassessment of the Italians’ contentious 2010 “Gelmini” law.

 Kirton-Darling spoke of the fundamental importance of equal employment rights to maintaining the European principle of free movement. She also expressed concern that an individual EU member nation should be able to flout EU laws for “budgetary reasons”, jeopardising the integrity of the European Constitution. Addressing members of a Scottish parliamentary delegation, the MEP for the Northeast of England also stressed the importance of supporting British Expats wherever they may be working in the EU. She further questioned the slow response of EU institutions to the case when even the Italian government has admitted that there is "a lack of homogeneity due to the autonomy of universities,"  as The Sunday Times reported in March 2014.

  Mr Wałęsa likewise argued that such employment discrimination ran “contrary to what the European Commission is about,” and suggested that a full analysis of the 2010 Law, which squashed multiple pending court cases without a judicial verdict, be undertaken immediately. He further accused the Commission of “not doing their homework” on the details of the case, and urged for further investigation, despite, by his own admission, entering the chamber with the intention of voting to close the petition.

 The matter was closed with a resolution by the Petitions Committee to reopen the complaint in its entirety, to address a letter to the Italian government requesting a comment on the case, and a clarification of the Commission’s position within a reasonable time period. A proposed one-month deadline was abandoned at Mr Perez-Flores’ request, who claimed that the necessary officials were not present at Monday’s meeting and he couldn’t therefore authorise such a short time-frame.

 For Mr Petrie the Committee’s conclusion was incredibly encouraging after so many years fighting the case because they were, “totally united in their position that the Commission’s answer was unacceptable, members of completely different political backgrounds: Christian democrats, liberals and socialists, they all united to support our submissions.” 

Commission lawyer Francisco Perez-Flores (left), and assistants