91998E1918

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1918/98

by Winfried Menrad (PPE) to the Commission

(18 June 1998)

Subject: Italian language and cultural studies for school-age children of Italian origin in Baden-Württemberg

Mother-tongue teaching for children of Italian origin takes place in German schools in Baden-Württemberg and is provided by Italian officials, who are seconded to provide this service in the Federal Republic, by salaried teaching staff and, finally, by staff paid on a fee basis. The seconded officials have both a regulated income and satisfactory social cover.

The fee-paid staff have no sickness, pension or unemployment insurance; their working conditions are deteriorating rapidly, partly as a result of payments being made by the Italian Government at irregular intervals.

Will the Commission therefore state whether, and what, measures can be introduced at European level to ensure:

1. that children of Italian origin will continue to be taught in their mother tongue by qualified teaching staff;

2. that all teaching staff have proper employment contracts which comply with legal requirements in the Federal Republic and/or Italy?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(22 September 1998)

According to the information provided by the Honourable Member, teachers of Italian in Baden-Württemberg are paid by the Italian Government on differing terms and conditions.

Those various regimes (civil servant, wage earner and self-employed professional) are provided for in the domestic law of all the Member States and reflect a different approach to the exercise of a professional activity.

In this connection, except where it is possible to demonstrate the existence of discrimination based on nationality as between specially recruited teachers and fee-earning teachers, the Commission has no jurisdiction to impose a particular contractual system on teachers in Italy or Germany.