“A judgment that Italy welcomes most warmly”. This was Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi’s comment on hearing of the ruling published today by the European Union’s Court of Justice. The judgment establishes that the publication in just three languages (English, French and German) of the Union’s open competitions for the recruitment of administrators and assistants, and the obligation to hold selection tests in one of those three languages, constitutes “discrimination”.
“This ruling is of fundamental importance as it demonstrates that Italy’s determination in defending the principle of non-discrimination in language matters within the European Union is not just a nationalistic position. Rather, as we have always maintained, it is a substantive factor for the union’s very raison d’être and its institutional legitimacy”. It was with this conviction that Minister Terzi has campaigned so strongly in recent weeks to ensure that all the proceedings of the EU Council Working Groups have full interpreting support for Italian.
“The European Union”, declared Minister Terzi, “cannot be likened to any other international organisation. It represents a level of shared government by the 27 member states, and its legislative provisions have direct effects on half a billion people”.
“At a time when the European Union is engaged in reiterating evermore strongly, and from a new perspective, the roots of its legitimacy, the issue of equal linguistic dignity is of utter and central importance. And this judgment”, concluded Terzi, “is a major recognition of the line that Italy has always upheld, with full support from all our parliamentary forces”.
