Page 12 - ELG2503 March Issue 493

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NEWS

Lettori acr
oss Italy collaborate to
Lettori across Italy collaborate to
lobby College of Commissioners
lobby College of Commissioners

Foreign lecturers in Italy continue to fight for their compensation
with CJEU. Henry Rodgers reports…

he freedom of movement against Member States in perceived
or parity of treatment breach of their Treaty obligations
provision of the Treaty can work to the advantage of the
Tof European Union is, defendant Member State.
in the words of the European The most high-profile of
Commission, ‘perhaps the most the Lettori cases taken by the
important right under Community Commission against Italy was
law and an essential element of undoubtedly enforcement case
European citizenship’. C-119/04, on which the Grand
This right confers on non- Chamber of 13 judges of the CJEU
national workers the same rights ruled in 2006. Indicatively of how
as the national workers of the seriously the Commission viewed
Member States of the Union. the discrimination against Lettori,
Though availed of by only a it asked the CJEU to impose daily
minority of the EU’s citizens, it is fines of €309,750.
a right which enjoys widespread A last-minute law introduced
public support. The principle of by Italy was ruled to be compliant
parity of treatment is seen as a with EU law. It remained to
cardinal principle, epitomising be ascertained whether the
the very spirit of the Treaty and settlements provided for under
the Union it governs. the law had been made, as Italy
One profession which avails maintained.
proportionately higher of the However, the confidentiality
freedom of movement provision requirement of the proceedings
than others is our own language precluded the Lettori from seeing
teaching profession. The reasons and contesting Italy’s depositions.
for this are obvious. Often the In the absence of evidence from
duration of the stay abroad to the Lettori to dispute Italy’s claims domestic Italian law over the for the organization of labour
teach a language is short-term. the Court declined to impose the supposedly binding ruling of the from universities as far apart as
But short-term or long-term, daily fines. CJEU, the pinnacle institution in Trieste in the north of Italy to
professional language teachers This highlights the grave the EU order. Palermo in Sicily. Commenting
who opt to take up employment injustice to the Lettori that In my letter to President on the organization of the letters
in another Member State of the resulted from the confidentiality von der Leyen, I write: ‘That a to the College of Commissioners,
EU are entitled under the Treaty requirement. Had the Commission member state could be allowed Anthony said:
to the same rights as counterpart checked with the Lettori, we to retrospectively interpret ‘The collaboration among
national workers. could easily have refuted Italy’s legislation on which the CJEU colleagues goes to prove that
This, of course, is in theory. In claim that the correct settlements has already ruled, and to its own despite decades of discriminatory
practice, it may not work out that had been made. The imposition advantage, would set a precedent treatment our spirit is not broken.
way. It certainly has not worked of daily fines of such magnitude with very serious implications for We will continue to campaign for
out that way for the non-national would quickly have ended the the rule of law in the EU.’ our Treaty rights until justice has
language lecturers in the Italian discrimination. Ursula von der Leyen presides been achieved.’
universities (Lettori). That the Commission went over a 27-member College
Though we have had recourse to on to open further infringement of Commissioners—one for Henry Rodgers
every remedy for redress available proceedings against Italy is proof each member state of the EU. teaches at
under EU law, in the process that it accepts that the correct Galvanized by the open letter to “La Sapienza”
winning four cases before the settlements due to the Lettori the Commission President, Lettori University of
Court of Justice of the European were never made. Eighteen years across Italy have been writing Rome. He is
Union (CJEU), the discrimination on, the grave miscarriage of letters in their own language to a founder member of Asso.
against us still persists. justice still galls and rankles with the Commissioners from their CEL.L, an official complainant
In a recent open letter to President the Lettori. home states calling attention to in the European Commission’s
of the European Commission, Undoubtedly, the most brazen the discrimination they endure. infringement proceedings against
Ursula von der Leyen, I described of Italy’s attempts to escape its As we go to press, all of the Italy. As a Lettore, his research
how intransigence on the part of obligations to Lettori under the Commissioners from the Western interests lie in the field of genre
Italy has denied us our Treaty rights CJEU case law is the Gelmini European Member States have
for four decades. Law of 2010. This retrospective been approached. We hope to analysis and the design of
I focused also on how the legislation in effect purports to contact most of the Eastern relevant career specific courses
rules of procedure under which ‘authentically interpret’ the CJEU European Commissioners also. for students of the Faculties of
infringement proceedings are ruling in Case C-119/04 and, in Genial Londoner, Anthony Jurisprudence, Economics and
conducted by the Commission the process, give precedence to Green, founded Lettori.it, a forum Political Science.
12 March 2025