Commission crèche under fresh attack

Date: 25/02/1999

By Rory Watson

THE European Commission is coming under pressure to terminate its contract with an Italian company which is running one of the Brussels crèches for the children of EU officials.

The local staff committee is demanding that the Commission itself should take over the running of the Boulevard Clovis nursery, which achieved notoriety last year when two former employees were charged with rape and indecent assault of some of the infants in their care.

The outcome of the case is unlikely to be known much before the autumn, but the staff committee says that it has received several complaints from parents suggesting that the firm concerned, ESEDRA, is not meeting the terms of its contract, which expires at the end of June.

The company is criticised for its educational methods and the high turnover of staff. A questionnaire completed by one- quarter of the parents of the 250 children at the nursery reveals far higher levels of dissatisfaction with the teaching, general activities and meetings at Clovis than with the comparable Palmerston and Beaulieu crèches which are run directly by the Commission.

The criticism echoes the conclusions of a separate investigation by an ad hoc committee of the Council of Ministers, which has issued two reports in the past year demanding that the contract be terminated.

The Commission has yet to respond to the staff committee's demand but, on the basis of its own assessment of the firm's performance, will have to decide before the end of April whether to put the contract out to tender again or take back responsibility for the crèche.

The Commission is also facing criticism from a different direction after refusing to help offset some of the legal and other fees incurred by one of the parents of the children who were allegedly abused by the two ex-employees between January and July 1997.

The parent, who believes that the appeal against this refusal was not properly processed by the Commission, now intends to challenge the decision in the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.

The Commission insists that it could not provide such assistance as this is restricted by internal staff regulations to cases relating to an official's performance of his or her duties. But staff unions insist that a certain amount of discretion is possible and critics claim that the rigidity is a sign of the institution's indifference to the parents' plight.

Meanwhile, legal proceedings against the two former Clovis staff, who are understood to be back in their native countries of Italy and Spain, have been unexpectedly delayed after the defence requested that additional testimony from experts be called.

The presiding judge has agreed to this, but is still waiting for approval from Belgian Justice Minister Tony van Parys for the €15,000 which the exercise will cost.