Sir, - Patrick Smyth's excellent report (European Diary, February 5th) on the long-running discrimination against foreign teaching staff in Italian universities should be required reading for those who assume that a free European labour market is by now a reality. It also highlights an important, inherent flaw in the 169 proceedings - the proceedings which empower the European Commission to act against a member state it believes to be discriminating or otherwise violating an obligation under the Treaty.
There is a presumption that the member state being investigated for violating the Treaty will furnish accurate information in response to the Commission's enquiries. Our union came into possession of some clearly inaccurate and misleading information which the Italian state had furnished to the Commission, and which is the subject of a complaint to the Director of Public Prosecutions in Naples. Naturally, this casts doubts on the remainder of the Italian response to the Commission and, so, we made what we see as a perfectly legitimate request for access to the Italian documentation. Although the Commission has the discretion to grant this request, it has not only refused to do so, but has just moved to the next phase in the 169 proceedings.
We are left now with the alternative either of seeing a flawed case go to the Court of Justice, or applying to the same court for access to the documents. The costs of such an action would severely strain the resources of our small union. While we consider our options, we are lobbying and winning the support of the European Parliament for a resolution calling on the Commission to investigate our complaints.
When I emigrated from Ireland 11 years ago, I naively believed that my rights under the Treaty were automatic. The ideas that ahead of me was a battle against discrimination which would eventually involve such pinnacle institutions as the Court of Justice and the European Parliament would have seemed far-fetched in the extreme. It would have seemed even more far-fetched to the credulous European I was then that the decisions of the Court and the resolutions of the Parliament in our favour could be so blatantly ignored by a founder member state such as Italy.
Although our long battle against discrimination has been difficult, there have been some consolations. As spokesman for the Irish teaching staff, I am in regular contact with Irish politicians, both home and Europe-based. Their immense contribution to our campaign is doing honour to the image of our country in the eyes of my foreign colleagues.
It seems a pity that after all the political support we have mustered and all the legal decisions we have in our favour, Italy can still evade its obligations under the Treaty with apparent impunity. - Yours, etc., Henry Rodgers,
Irish spokesman, Association of Foreign Lecturers in Italy, Via Francesco Acri, Rome.