EU pie: costly ingredients and a very bitter taste

Over the last 13 years I have corresponded with the European Commission in Brussels, the British government in London, and the British DFES in Yorkshire, and also the French Educational authorities in Paris and Amiens. In thirteen years I have made no headway whatsoever in my attempts to fulfil the European dream of integration and free movement across EU borders.

As a fully qualified British schoolteacher, able to speak and teach three languages, with 6 years at university under my belt, I would have expected to see the professional openings for people like myself become more frequent and more accessible across Europe, as the EU gets bigger and the possibilities for exchange are supposed to be multiplying with Erasmus programmes etc.......

However, I have been extremely disappointed to discover that this dream is in fact a one way street: traffic flows in one direction only - towards Dover!

The English system stands alone (and I stress the word English because, as I will point out later, Scotland has sealed its border and locked its foreigner-proof doors in a very similar, and shameful, way to France & Belgium). England is awash with foreign teachers, doctors, nurses, architects, all benefiting from a welcoming policy of official recognition of qualifications with the opportunity to apply for a job in the candidate's chosen sector. This permits a non-English person the right to earn a living and prove his or her worth in a professional context, thereby allowing him or her the right to self respect and a decent standard of living. This is something that English people can be proud of. However, when this practice is not put into place by the countries whose citizens come to England to take advantage of what Tony Blair called "our good nature" and our boundless capacity for tolerance, there has to be some reflection, and above all, some action.

In France I have been subjected to an insiduous policy of non-recognition and debasement since 1992 when I first tried to work here. As I attempt to understand why my son's language teachers have no formal teacher training and are unable to speak English to me, why their teaching methods are out-dated and unsuited to the needs of a global society in 2010, and why I am treated as an uneducated, unqualified person and told to return to academia and retrain; the French authorities send me staccato replies that dodge the issue in a most patronising way.

The EU Commission has done nothing at all to impress me since 1997 when I began to consult them via my Euro MP Gary Titley. Indeed, over the years, they have become far less friendly and understanding, as I up the pressure and complain about their refusal to act and their inability to comprehend the injustices of the way the French operate when it comes to recognising professional qualifications obtained outside France. (In short - they don't ............never short on arrogance, the French government, whether on the right or the left).

This policy, that successive French governments put into practice, is a covert form of racism. The EU allows them this luxury by quoting loopholes x y and z. In fact, I am convinced that France is in the EU for the following reasons only :

• Mr De Gaulle had a hand in setting up the EEC and making France one of its central pillars


• It gives them a feeling of being a sort of superpower in a European context


• They love the huge subsidies they get, especially for the farmers (who are extremely numerous and a very powerful voting lobby in France)


• They like to pretend to be all embracing of other cultures (blue EU flags everywhere), while scorning non-French qualifications behind closed doors and barring the route to non-French citizens

The latest letter I received from Commissioner Charlie McCreevy's office tells me to retrain and sit a competition to be able to enter the teaching profession. Well!!! Would you ask a vet to go back to veterinary school? Would you ask an EU commissioner to go back to grassroots politics and go knocking on doors on residential housing estates.......... I think not. They would be most affronted and extremely loathe to give up all the nice cash they are earning. However, I, according to the EU rulebook, am supposed to do just that.

As I realise that I will never make any headway in France (nor Belgium for that matter where I tried to get a job, only to discover that they operate the same anachronistic system as the French) I looked to a move to Scotland, as my husband had a chance of spending a couple of years there with his job. I was quite optimistic and full of hope when I wrote to the Scottish GTC (General Teaching Council). Cor lumme! I nearly had heart failure when I started to receive their feedback. The acceptance policy is both ageist and racist, as far I as can see. Applicants who are not twenty-somethings who have gone through the Scottish system will struggle to put all the relevant paperwork together. You need a Degree transcript (what the hell is that?), a list of your university credits (we didn't have them in the 80s!) proof of how many days / months you spent in Spain / France / Germany if you did a language degree (how do you prove 10+ years' residence when our passports are no longer stamped, and no residence permit is required because of the Schengen agreement?). I phoned the GTCS and was spoken to very sharply by a young lady who belittled me the way the French do. I have just received a letter explaining that, at the age of 44, having thrice been Head of Dept., among other things; I would have to do a probationary year in Scotland!!! What nonsense is this? (Gordon Brown - are you listening?)

I showed the GTCS letter to my Franco-Belgian husband (who is ashamed of his respective countries' political decisions cited above) and he concurred with me that Scotland can keep its ill thought-out, discriminatory tactics .......... yet another country to avoid. What is the world coming to?

I am so disillusioned I have joined UKIP. Why should we pay for the upkeep of an EU that allows jingoism and bigotry to be official policy in most member states? The EU costs 40 million Euros a day to run - to keep Brussels staff : bureaucrats and translators plus the EU ambassadors in posh residences all over the world and the MEPs with their expenses bills - now there's another can of worms. Having worked for 5 years on the African continent, I can assure you that such a considerable amount of money could be far better spent.

By Paula Flanagan