Italian universities continue to practise discrimination

Italian universities continue to practise discrimination

The Italian government is continuing to discriminate against foreign academics in Italian universities, despite a ruling from the European Court of Justice and pressure from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Euro-MP Neil MacCormick highlighted the plight of David Petrie, a reader at the University of Verona, and Victoria Primhak, a reader at the Oriental School of Naples, at a press conference. The academics pointed out that, although the European Court of Justice had ruled in 1989 that the Italian Government was guilty of discrimination, nothing had been done to resolve the situation and access to the relevant documents was still being denied. Jack Straw had stated to the academics in a letter that he had raised the matter with his Italian counterpart, who had assured him that he would contact the British Government about the matter.