WRITTEN QUESTION E-0241/04 by Johanna Boogerd-Quaak (ELDR) to the Commission. Language discrimination — native speakers.
Date: 2004-02-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: job description, job vacancy, linguistic discrimination, recruitment

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/333

‘native speaker’ contravenes Community law on the free movement of workers. The Commission has also
emphasised its intention to use its legal powers, where necessary, to prohibit the use of terms such as
‘native speaker’ in job advertisements.

Technical support offices, non-governmental organisations and certain firms engaged in European activities
have persisted in publishing job advertisements aimed exclusively at
‘native English speakers’ and
applicants with ‘English mother tongue’. Recent examples can be found at www.lingvo.org/eo/2/15.

What action does the Commission intend to take against firms and NGOs that stipulate ‘English mother
tongue’ or ‘native English speakers’ in their job advertisements? Does the Commission intend to do more
to prevent such violations of the principle of the free movement of workers?

(2004/C 84 E/0392)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0241/04

by Johanna Boogerd-Quaak (ELDR) to the Commission

Subject: Language discrimination (cid:1) native speakers

(2 February 2004)

In its answer to Written Question E-2764/02 (1), the Commission acknowledges that a ‘native speaker’
condition in recruitment announcements ‘is not acceptable under Community rules on free movement of
workers, as it is unlawfully discriminatory. Therefore the Commission considers that the use of this term in
job advertisements is prohibited by Community law.’

Over
the last year, Commission-funded European technical assistance offices, non-governmental
organisations and private firms have advertised more than 700 vacancies at European level which have
been set aside exclusively for ‘native English speakers’ or ‘English mother tongue’ applicants. For those
vacancies, no-one with ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ knowledge of English was looked for; rather, and
expressly, only native English-speakers. However, such advertisements are still frequently published. These
days, organisations are replacing terms such as ‘English mother tongue’ by ‘English mother tongue or
equivalent’ and ‘English native speaker level’ and are subsequently interviewing only English native-
speakers.

1.

Does the Commission intend to combat this? If so, how? If not, why not?

Does the Commission also intend to work in future with organisations which discriminate against

2.
non-native English-speakers?

(1) OJ C 92 E, 17.4.2003, p. 207.

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-0201/04, E-0210/04, E-0236/04 and E-0241/04
given by Mr Dimas on behalf of the Commission

(22 March 2004)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Members to its reply to Written Questions E-0046/04 by
Mr Dhaene and E-0086/04 by Mrs Maes (1) on this subject.

The Community action programme to combat discrimination, adopted by the Council Decision of
27 November 2000,
is based on Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty, which gives the Community
jurisdiction to combat discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or
sexual orientation. Discrimination based on language is not, therefore, one of the areas potentially covered
by the programme, and the Commission does not intend to fund such activities.

C 84 E/334

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

The Commission has written to the companies Intrasoft and Ogilvy in order to draw their attention to this
problem and to inform them that they should take this into account when recruiting personnel.

With regard to Intrasoft, which had been contacted by the Commission following previous parliamentary
questions on this matter, the Commission notes that this company no longer uses discriminatory wording
in job advertisements on its website; the Commission has, nevertheless, written to this company to remind
it of the rules concerning this matter.

(1) See page 302.

(2004/C 84 E/0393)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0203/04

by Alexander de Roo (Verts/ALE) and Bernd Lange (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Spanish Fuel Quality Law (cid:1) Royal Decree 1700/2003

(29 January 2004)

In a recent Royal Decree (Real Decreto 1700/2003) implementing Directive 2003/17 (1) on fuel quality, the
Spanish government has intentionally deviated from requirements under European fuel quality legislation
for gasoline by changing the volatility (RVP) specifications in the national law.

The Spanish Decree also deviates from the European biodiesel FAME standard, agreed under the auspices
of the European standards organisation, as regards iodine specifications.

How will the Commission react to the Spanish law in order to ensure that EU environmental legislation is
uniformly applied in all Member States?

How would these changes to fuel quality specifications affect vehicle emissions and the attainment of
objectives agreed under the Auto-Oil Programmes as regards different air pollutants, and could these
deviations have a distorting effect in the internal market?

(1) OJ L 76, 22.3.2003, p. 10.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(8 March 2004)

The attention of the Commission has already been drawn to the recently adopted Spanish Royal Decree
(1700/2003) with regard to the apparent deviations from the requirements of Directive 2003/17/EC of the
Parliament and of the Council of 3 March 2003 on the quality of petrol and diesel fuels. In the short term,
the Commission is investigating this case with regard to deviations from the legal requirements laid down
in Directive 98/70/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 (1) and the European bio
diesel FAME standard, as raised by the Honourable Member.

In the longer term, as part of its review of Directive 2003/17/EC, the Commission will examine the
compatibility of the specifications for petrol and diesel with increased use of bio fuels in the transport
sector. Amongst other issues, the review will examine the question of the volatility specifications for petrol
in the light of an increased use of ethanol, any potential effect on air quality objectives and any problems
that may affect the driveability of motor vehicles. In so doing the Commission will take into account the
costs and benefits of any change to the specifications and ensure there is no distortion of the functioning
of the internal market. It will take into account the recently-adopted bio fuels directive (Directive 2003/30/
EC (2)), which requires Member States to set targets on the use of bio fuels and which highlights the need
to adapt standards in order to permit this. As specified in Article 9 of Directive 2003/17/EC, this review is
due to be completed before the end of 2005.