WRITTEN QUESTION P-3361/00 by Barbara Weiler (PSE) to the Commission. Discrimination against mother-tongue language teachers.
Date: 2000-10-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Hesse, discrimination on the basis of nationality, equal pay, equal treatment, free movement of workers, occupational status, professional qualifications, teacher

13.11.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 318 E/3

(cid:129) Member States may also grant support using market mechanisms such as green certificates or tenders.

(cid:129) Aid may also be granted on the basis of external costs avoided.

(cid:129) Lastly, Member States may grant degressive operating aid for a period of five years.

The Commission considers this approach to be generous in terms of state aid but justified by the need to
allow Member States to take every step to develop environmentally friendly sources of energy. It is an
approach that
for a Parliament and Council Directive on the
promotion of renewable energy sources (2).

is fully consistent with the proposal

(1) OJ C 37, 3.2.2001.
(2) COM(2000) 279 final.

(2001/C 318 E/003)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3317/00

by John Bowis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(25 October 2000)

Subject: Allocation of EU funds to London

What is the total of European Union funds spent in or allocated to London for each of the last five years,
for which figures are available?

Supplementary answer
given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(27 June 2001)

Further to its answer of 3 November 2000 (1), the Commission is sending the information requested direct
to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat.

(1) OJ C 103 E, 3.4.2001, p. 243.

(2001/C 318 E/004)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3361/00

by Barbara Weiler (PSE) to the Commission

(20 October 2000)

Subject: Discrimination against mother-tongue language teachers

In Hessen, mother-tongue language teachers are generally placed in a lower category on the public pay
scale for non-tenured employees than their German colleagues.

In the view of the Commission, are the German L(cid:228)nder entitled to make it a practice to place

1.
mother-tongue language teachers in a lower category than other teachers in non-tenured employment?

If so, would this lower categorisation still be tenable if a full teaching qualification from the country
2.
of origin were expressly required as a condition of giving mother-tongue language instruction and if, in
addition, the individual teaching qualification had been recognised in an equivalence decision?

3.

Does the Commission not take the view that such treatment violates the following rights:

(cid:129) the right to equal treatment (in this case as regards nationality)

(cid:129) the right to freedom of movement

(cid:129) the right to equal pay for equal work?

C 318 E/4

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

13.11.2001

Supplementary answer
given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(30 May 2001)

The Commission wrote to the German authorities in November 2000 and again in January 2001 asking
for further information on the subject of the pay and conditions of mother-tongue language teachers in
the German Land of Hessen.

The German authorities have now replied and have explained that the pay of all teachers is determined by
two criteria; qualifications (how many subjects the teacher is qualified to teach) and the number of subjects
actually taught. As mother tongue language teachers only teach one subject they are paid less than
teachers who teach two or more subjects. The difference in treatment between mother tongue language
therefore based upon
teachers and other
criteria unrelated to nationality, and as such does not appear to the Commission to be contrary to
Community law.

(whether of German or other nationality)

teachers

is

The Honourable Member asks whether it would be acceptable to pay mother-tongue teachers at a lower
rate if they were expressly required to have a full teaching qualification from their Member State of origin
and if they had had that teaching qualification formally recognised by the German authorities as equivalent
to a German qualification.

If a mother-tongue language teacher was fully qualified in his home Member State to teach more than one
subject, then he would satisfy one of the two criteria set out by the Hessen authorities to be used for salary
purposes, and would be placed on the appropriate salary scale. It appears to the Commission that the
recognition of the foreign teaching qualifications of mother-tongue language teachers from other Member
States does not alter the fact that they only teach one subject, and are therefore placed on a lower salary
scale than teachers (of any nationality) who teach more than one subject. The Commission would point
out that mother-tongue language teachers are not required to have their teaching qualifications formally
recognised by the German authorities in order to teach a mother-tongue language.

For the reasons explained above, it does not appear to the Commission that the criteria used by the Hessen
authorities to place mother-tongue language teachers on the salary scale discriminate on grounds of
nationality. The principle of equality of remuneration between migrant workers and workers of the host
Member State only applies when they are doing the same job, and it is clear that a mother-tongue
language teacher teaching one subject is not doing the same job as a teacher who teaches several subjects.
Finally, the Commission does not consider that the placing of mother-tongue language teachers on a lower
salary scale compared to teachers of several subjects is a breach of the right to free movement because
although mother-tongue language teachers are paid less than teachers who teach more than one subject
they are able to teach in Germany without having their teaching qualifications formally recognised. It is
therefore not at all clear, overall, whether there is any deterrent to the right of free movement.

(2001/C 318 E/005)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3687/00

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Freedom of association for Europe-wide political groupings

(29 November 2000)

Many Union citizens are seeking to join with nationals of different Member States in campaigning for
Europe, thereby giving expression to their aspirations to integration and their concern to unite as closely
as possible by sharing in the common European ideal.

However, because of the yawning legal gaps still existing at national level, groupings of citizens from
different Member States are deprived of a frame of reference in Community law that would enable them to
perceive themselves as European political associations working to promote Europe-wide integration of the
EU Member States.