WRITTEN QUESTION E-3552/02 by Jean-Maurice Dehousse (PSE) to the Commission. Workplace discrimination in the European Schools.
Date: 2002-12-12
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Belgium, European school, anti-discriminatory measure, equal treatment, labour law, staff regulations (EU), teacher

C 161 E/102

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

10.7.2003

Mobilisation of the EUSF requires submission of an application to the Commission by the national
authorities within ten weeks of the date when the first damage occurred. For disasters occurring between
1 August and 15 November, the date of entry into force of the EUSF regulation, applications must be
received within two months of the latter date.

In areas with Structural Fund eligibility the Union can also contribute to economic reconstruction through
the regional development programme allocations from these Funds already determined for the period
2000-2006.

Moreover, in the Northern Italian regions, the Union can also contribute to economic reconstruction in
rural areas through the EAGGF Guarantee section funds if this mesure is foreseen in the relevant Rural
Development Program approved for the period 2000-2006.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the European Union Solidarity Fund,

OJ L 311, 14.11.2002.

(2003/C 161 E/105)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3552/02

by Jean-Maurice Dehousse (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Workplace discrimination in the European Schools

(12 December 2002)

To the knowledge of the author of this question, the European Schools are governed, subject to the terms
of the Staff Regulations, by public law. These establishments employ three categories of staff: teaching staff
seconded by a government, part-time teachers and administrative and service personnel.

If the author is correctly informed, the teachers are employed by the heads of the Schools and are subject
to the law of the country in which they work.

It seems that in Belgium, where four European Schools are located, the part-time teachers’ working
conditions are, from a statutory point of view as well as in terms of daily working practice, in violation of
a good many terms of Belgian employment law.

It should also be pointed out that the status of seconded staff is in no way comparable to that of part-time
teachers, even though the work and the job description are identical.

Is the Commission aware, firstly, of the non-observance of numerous aspects of Belgian employment
1.
law by the European Schools and, secondly, of the fact that this kind of situation is contrary to both the
principle of equality before the law and that of equal pay for equal work?

2.

If so, what does the Commission intend to do to remedy this state of affairs?

How, in particular, does it intend to apply the Directive establishing a general framework for equal

3.
treatment in employment and occupation (2000/78/CE) (1)?

(1) OJ L 302, 2.12.2000, p. 16.

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(10 February 2003)

1.
The Convention defining the Statute of the European Schools, signed on 21 June 1994, gives the
Board of Governors, the intergovernmental body responsible for the schools on which the Commission has
one seat, the decision-making powers in educational, budgetary and administrative matters necessary for
application of that Convention.

2.
Using these powers the Board of Governors approved on 26 and 27 April 1994 the Regulations for
Assistant Teachers and on 23 and 24 April 1996 the Regulations for Personnel Seconded to the European
Schools. Both are still in force.

10.7.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 161 E/103

There are three separate categories of assistant teacher:

(cid:1) those recruited by the Headteachers, who provide a service on a temporary basis, either part-time by
giving lessons outside the hours assigned to the seconded teachers or full-time in occupation of posts
not filled by the latter

(cid:1) substitutes recruited by the Headteachers to replace teaching staff absent from time to time,

(cid:1) teachers of religious knowledge appointed by the competent authorities.

It is not the case that assistant teachers are only subject to the legislation of the country in which

3.
they are working.

They are subject to the Regulations indicated above, which contain specific provisions on certain matters
such as salary, career of religious knowledge teachers etc. On matters such as rights, obligations,
responsibilities, tasks, appeals etc. these Regulations make reference to the Regulations for Seconded
Personnel, and on others such as social security, taxation etc. to the legislation of the country in which the
school is located.

4.
It is true that the Regulations for Assistant Teachers differ from those for seconded personnel. These
differences cannot, however, be interpreted as infringing the ‘principle of equality’ and that of ‘equal pay
for equal work’. They reflect differences in employment circumstances between the two groups. For
example, it would be difficult to apply the length of service and career structure provisions for seconded
teachers to staff recruited to answer a temporary need.

5.
Under the abovementioned Convention of 21 June 1994 and the Regulations of 26 and 27 April
1996 assistant teachers may dispute acts of the European Schools to which they object before, as
appropriate, the Complaints Board or the courts of the country in which the school is located. These are
the only bodies competent to pronounce on the legality of disputed acts.

The Commission has no knowledge of the cases claiming failure by the Belgian European Schools to
labour law, or of failure by them to respect Council Directive 2000/78/EC of
comply with national
27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.

(2003/C 161 E/106)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3554/02

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(12 December 2002)

Subject: Reduction of the transitional period for the phasing-out of single-hull tankers in response to the

devastating disaster off the coast of Galicia

1.
Does the Commission have any estimate of the costs which will be incurred between now and 2015,
i.e. during the period before the total ban on single-hull tankers entering EU waters and ports comes into
force, as a result of the predictable probability that single-hull tankers will run aground on the coasts of
the EU Member States or will be involved in collisions, break up or sink in the surrounding seas?

2. What is the Commission’s estimate of the cost to the authorities concerned of cleaning up the
resultant spills during the period 2005-2015, for example the cost of cleaning coastlines, surviving birds
and seawater?

3. What is the Commission’s estimate of the cost which will be borne by industry during the period
2005-2015 due to the inability of such sectors as coastal fisheries and tourism to operate on account of
pollution?

4. What is its estimate of the costs which would be incurred by the shipping companies concerned,
during the period 2005-2015, if the single-hull oil tankers currently still registered in EU Member States
were to be banned from 2005, so that the companies had to write them off?