Infringement case C-519/23 – Commission v Italy
14.3.2025
Question for written answer E-001102/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Michael McNamara (Renew)
Case C-519/23[1] was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) because of Italy’s failure to implement the ruling in an earlier enforcement case – case C-119/04[2].
In that case the CJEU held that an Italian law of March 2004 could satisfy EU law, if correctly implemented. Noting that the Commission depositions did not include information from the foreign language lecturers to dispute Italy’s claim that the settlements due for decades of discriminatory treatment had been correctly made, the CJEU declined to impose the daily fines of EUR 309 750 recommended by the Commission. Had fines of such magnitude been imposed, the discrimination would have ended in 2006 and would not be persisting.
In case C-519/23, the Commission concedes that the correct settlements under the March 2004 law were not made. A national census conducted by representative foreign language lecturer organisations and furnished to the Commission confirms that the discrimination still persists.
As a check on the evidence furnished by Italy in case C-519/23, and to prevent a recurrence of the unfortunate outcome in case C-119/04, will the Commission check university by university with the foreign language lecturers to ensure that the correct settlements due under EU law have been made?
Submitted: 14.3.2025