Luxemburg, 28/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Civil Service Tribunal in Luxemburg has just rejected an appeal by four officials and a temporary agent who wanted their computer operating system, software and help line to be in their mother tongue or in an EU language other than English. Giorgio Lebedef (union representative), Armand Imbert (now retired), Maria Rosario Domenech Cobo (DG ECHO) and Jean-Marie Rousseau (DG Research) had challenged the European Commission decision not to accede to their request.
In an order, the European Tribunal considered that the use of IT systems required only an average knowledge of English, that the terminology and procedures “are often as difficult to understand in the mother tongue as in English”, and that officials had a help desk where they could seek help in their mother tongue. It added that making software components available to officials was a simple internal organisational measure. The officials above could only have challenged the decision if it had been a hidden sanction or if there had been a desire to discriminate against them.
Giorgio Lebedef also claimed that it was impossible to dictate texts onto the computer in his mother tongue, this option only being available in English. The Tribunal considered that the union representative had not proved that this had had any effect on his career.
The four officials claimed that to set up all the computers in English was a form of discrimination and was prejudicial to “European citizens' perception of respect for linguistic and cultural diversity”.