France tests ski instructors’ patience

Date: 11/12/1997

By Leyla Linton

BRITISH skiing instructors are calling for an international commission to be set up to settle once and for all a long-running dispute with Paris over their right to work on French soil.

The British Association of Ski Instructors (BASI) this week wrote to the European Commission outlining its idea for the creation of a group of international sports experts who would try to resolve the dispute by the end of this skiing season.

British ski instructors have long complained that the French are breaching the single market principle of freedom of movement by refusing to recognise their qualifications.

Although France has now put legislation in place to comply with internal market rules, it argues that there is a “substantial difference” between British and French professional qualifications.

Paris has now accepted around 90&percent; of the British qualification. However, it still insists that the French way of checking the technical skiing ability of instructors is better and forces British skiing instructors to take an aptitude test.

British skiing instructors can only take this test in France and must train for weeks beforehand. As a result, many of them are discouraged from working in French resorts.

The proposed commission would try to establish independently whether or not there was an objective difference between French and British qualifications. British and French skiers would only be given observer status within the commission to avoid a 'deadlock'.

BASI chief executive Bob Kinnaird refuses to accept that its qualification is 'inferior' or second-class, and says the French test is expensive and unnecessary. “We do not believe the test is valid,” he explained, claiming that its imposition amounted to protectionism.

“Instructors on the ground see allowing British instructors into France as a threat. They are very protective,” he said.

Kinnaird pointed out that only around 100 British ski instructors would be interested in working in France.

“It is a drop in the ocean. It is not an economic problem, but it has polarised over the years,” he said.

He does believe, however, that the French are moving in the right direction. “It is getting better but it will take time. We recognise that we have to work in partnership with them,” he said, adding: “We would not have got this far without pressure from the Commission.”