Dr. Philip Sargent
27 Greville Road
CAMBRIDGE CB1 3QJ

+44 (1223) 527797 tel.
+44 (1223) 420044 fax.
Philip.Sargent@computer.org

Jacob Söderman
The European Ombudsman
l'avenue du Président Robert Schuman
F-67001 STRASBOURG Cedex
B.P. 403
FRANCE

30 January 1999

Dear Mr. Söderman,

942/98/ME/IJH

Thank you for confirming that the JRC was incorrect and supplied me with erroneous and misleading information, and also refused to supply information (your letter dated 20 January 1999).

The report from the European Commission states the following new facts that I did not know before:

1. As far as the Commission is concerned, my only rights are those written in the "Guidelines for Visiting Scientists",
2. The "Conditions of Employment" explicitly list those people who are considered "servants" and this does not include Visiting Scientists.
3. The allowance is deemed to cover everything, and "it is up to visiting scientists to provide their own social security".

Point 3 explicitly contradicts what I was told by the human resources department at the JRC. It is also a legal interpretation and should be backed up by a statement from a certified lawyer that this is the case specifically in Italy. I doubt that it is, in fact, correct (see below).

Point 2 is what I was asking the human resources department at the JRC for, ever since February 1998, and which they were unable to tell me. I asked which document or regulation states whether Visiting Scientists are "servants" or not. They were unable to tell me that it was the "Conditions of Employment". I was unable to determine this for myself since I was never given the conditions of employment because I was a visiting scientist. This is a "failure to provide information".

Point 1 is irrelevant since my queries were not about rights accorded by the Commission, but my social security rights which are accorded by the Italian state.

On the 27 November 1997 I wrote to the JRC Human Resources Department and asked:

"I am told that I will have to pay Italian Social Insurance (covers national health service, unemployment, old-age pensions etc. Do you know how much money this is per month ?" but received no reply to this question, or questions as to how I could pay it - despite repated questions for over a year. Instead I received repeated denials that I needed to pay Italian Social security from Mrs. Barbieri and Mrs. Rabossi of the JRC Human Resources Department. The offical answer from the Commission clearly shows that the JRC "failed or refused to provide information".

The reference to "considerable volume of correspondence" was because the many letters I received did not, in fact, contain the information I requested. It is a simple mistake in logic (and a rhetorical midemeanor) to assert that a volume of correspondence implies that information was provided. In fact, only inadequate and incorrect information was provided.

Therefore my "obversations" on the Commission's reply are that :

• the penultimate paragraph is an obvious logical inconsistency which tries to make a conclusion which does not follow. "Providing information" is simply not the same thing as "replying to requests": the replies did not contain the information requested. I also received information from JRC Human Resources which, by the Commission's own admission in this report, was false.
• the last paragraph, which dismisses my claim, is simply false. The Commission is responsible for maladministration.

Therefore I must ask you to require that the Commission admits its culpability.

Thank you,
Sincerely

Philip Sargent

Point of information

The single letter I received from Vassiliki KolotourouDGV (which you have a copy of) stated that eligibility to pay or not pay social security was a right reserved by the Italian State office INPS (with whom I am in current correspondence). It appears likely that the JRC has been acting illegally for 20 years in not paying employers' social security contributions for Visiting Scientists and some Grant Holders, irrespective of the payments by individuals.