The Federation of European Employers believes immigration and linguistic rules are hampering the employment market. | A Federation View | The Global Recruiter Magazine: "The biggest barrier to mobility within the EU remains its many linguistic divides and it has normally taken the courts to remove the impractical and often unjust nature of linguistic restrictions imposed on companies.
In France all employment contracts and employment policy documents must be made available in French, even if the lingua franca of a company is not French. Until recently employers in the Flemish Region of Belgium were also required to use Dutch when writing the employment contracts of foreign nationals. It has taken a ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to challenge this Flemish decree. Advocate-General Jaaskinen advised the Court that there is no pan-EU rule harmonising the use of languages in employment contracts. Further to this, the ECJ decided that a law such as the one is question might well discourage applications from job candidates residing outside Flanders or the Netherlands (C-202/11).
The French Supreme Court has also intervened to remove the automatic obligation on international employers under French law to offer redundant employees vacant positions in another country, even if the employee concerned could not speak the native language of the country where they would be redeployed.
In spite of these interventions EU governments continue to introduce laws that discriminate against foreigners and linguistic minorities and in favour of their own mainstream country nationals."
