1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:21,000 Every year, more and more people go to other countries of the European Union to study and 2 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:28,480 work. But all too often they find that a diploma, a professional qualification, access to education 3 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:33,680 or employment rights are not recognised in the member state concerned. In fact, despite 4 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:39,440 our open borders, the application of EU legislation can sometimes leave a lot to be desired. And 5 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:45,600 to file a complaint or go to court can take a long time and be very costly. 6 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:49,600 To solve these types of problems, the European Commission has set up a free service called 7 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:56,480 Solvit. Any individual or company can contact the Solvit centre in their home country when 8 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:02,040 they believe their rights have not been respected. The cooperative team spirit, which exists 9 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:06,040 throughout the Solvit network, means that most of the conflicts can be resolved in around 10 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:13,040 ten weeks. The following story happened in Portugal. 11 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:51,040 This story happened in 2005. Since then, João Camarada has found work on the ferry linking 12 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:55,600 the Portuguese town of Vila Real de San Antonio to Juelva, on the other side of the river 13 00:01:55,600 --> 00:02:02,360 in Spain. But this maritime engineer, a specialist in diesel engines, would have preferred to 14 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:10,640 be working on a fishing boat. So what exactly happened? João Camarada has considerable 15 00:02:10,640 --> 00:02:16,800 professional experience, having worked for 30 years in South Africa and Canada. On his 16 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:21,320 return to Portugal, he tried to find work. But in Vila Real, the fishing industry was 17 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:26,240 in decline. By chance, on the other side of the river in Spain, a boat owner was ready 18 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:35,120 to hire him to work on one of his boats, the Nazareno. But a ruling from the Spanish authorities 19 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:40,120 clearly prevented this. As João was Portuguese, he didn't have the right to work as a mechanic 20 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:41,160 in Spain. 21 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:50,160 If I have the rights, I want the rights. I had the right to work here. And they didn't 22 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:59,160 want to give me the credentials to work here. I felt humiliated. I arrived in Vila Real, 23 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:08,160 I phoned Bruxelas, the green line in Bruxelas, and that's when it all started to move. 24 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:13,200 Though living a long way from Brussels, this Portuguese engineer showed great initiative 25 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:18,200 in contacting Europe Direct, where he was advised to call the Solvit office in Lisbon 26 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:21,200 to help him settle his differences with the Spanish authorities. 27 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:22,200 Good afternoon. 28 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:23,200 Good afternoon. 29 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:26,200 Are you Rosarinho Melancia? 30 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:28,200 Yes, I am. I'm from the Solvit center in Portugal. 31 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:30,200 From the Solvit center in Portugal. Yes. 32 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:36,200 This is the person João spoke to on the phone, Rosarinho Melancia, the head of Solvit in 33 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:42,240 Portugal. She's in Brussels for a meeting with her European colleagues. She worked together 34 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:46,240 with the Solvit center in Spain to solve the João Camarada affair. 35 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:53,240 We helped him ask the Spanish authorities for the recognition of his diploma. And it 36 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:59,240 took a while. And then our friends in the Spanish Solvit center also insisted, because 37 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:05,240 it was a very old diploma, so it was a very difficult procedure. And finally, with the 38 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:10,280 cooperation of Solvit Spain, of course, we managed to have his diploma recognized. 39 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:15,280 At the beginning, João battled on his own for six months to get his rights recognized 40 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:21,280 by the Spanish authorities, but to no avail. The Solvit center made his task a lot easier. 41 00:04:21,280 --> 00:04:28,280 They didn't tell me to do anything. They did everything for me. They told me not to 42 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:35,320 look for discussions with that entity, that they would deal with everything. And then they 43 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,320 informed me of what was happening. 44 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:50,320 It really means talking to the persons, knowing about their problem, telling them what results 45 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:59,360 we have achieved so far. And it's a very personalized way of dealing with a problem 46 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:01,360 and with a person. 47 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:10,400 Of all the people I spoke to there, both Ms. Rosarinho and Ms. Mafalda were always impeccable 48 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:15,400 to me. I can't say better than that. It was the best. 49 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:21,400 It took less than two months for Solvit to get João's rights recognized in the European 50 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:27,400 community. It's true that this affair lost him a year's work, but from now on, living 51 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:32,440 on the border as he does, he can work as a maritime engineer anywhere in Spain. 52 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:41,440 I think it's exceptional. And we should have many Solvits, not only in Portugal but 53 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:46,440 throughout the European Union, to solve these problems. As I said before, it would be better 54 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:51,440 if there were no problems. But as there are problems, there must be people like Solvit 55 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:53,440 to solve them. 56 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:18,440 This is Oslo Airport. Sunder is the largest executive air operator in Norway. Lars Högberg, 57 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:22,440 one of the managers, found himself mixed up in a story that he could never possibly have 58 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:27,480 imagined. A plane was impounded by the French customs at Le Bourget Airport near Paris. 59 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:30,480 A first for this private company. 60 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:37,480 So, this is actually the plane you see here behind me that was taking a rest in Paris. 61 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:43,480 The LNSUV shows that this is a Norwegian-registered aircraft, and that was the problem when we 62 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:45,480 were coming to Paris. 63 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:51,480 We had a normal flight from Oslo to Paris, and then it was scheduled from Paris to Nantes, 64 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:56,520 from Nantes back to Paris. We had two passengers from Nantes, and it all started when we were 65 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:02,520 arriving in Le Bourget at Nantes, and where the customers were talking about cabotage 66 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:05,520 for flying domestic in France without approval. 67 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:09,520 According to French customs, Sunder didn't have the right to practice cabotage, in other 68 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:14,520 words, to fly between two French cities, Nantes and Paris. But they were wrong. The company 69 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:19,520 paid a €3,000 fine and returned to Norway. They contacted the civil aviation authorities 70 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:23,560 straight away. The story was in the newspapers and caught the attention of the Oslo Solvit 71 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,560 office, based in the Ministry of Trade and Transport. 72 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:32,560 Yeah, the first time I heard about this case was from my colleagues at the Ministry of 73 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:38,560 Transport. They actually know Solvit quite well, and after that I just took a phone call 74 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:40,560 to Sunder. 75 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:46,560 The main problem here was probably that the local French authorities, customs authorities, 76 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:51,600 they did not know, as we see it, the EEA agreement. 77 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:56,600 The EEA, European Economic Area, is a free trade agreement which includes three other 78 00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:02,600 European countries, including Norway. So Sunder does have the right to practice cabotage. 79 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:07,600 During the affair, Karian Kristiansen got in contact with a carrier who asked to make 80 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:09,600 an appointment. 81 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:11,640 Hi, Karian Kristiansen. 82 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:17,640 I think it was a great idea because we haven't never heard about it, and the only way where 83 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:22,640 we were going was to the civil aviation authorities, and that was slow moving. 84 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:28,640 They were actually quite concerned because they are quite often going to France with 85 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:35,640 clients, and even though this fine was not very big, it was €3,000, the most important 86 00:08:35,680 --> 00:08:39,680 thing for them was to avoid this to happen once more. 87 00:08:39,680 --> 00:08:43,680 This was not the case about the money, this was more the case if we were doing the right 88 00:08:43,680 --> 00:08:48,680 thing or not. It's very important for our business that we can do business as other 89 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:50,680 partners of the common market. 90 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:56,680 The complaint lodged by Sunder follows the procedure used in all the Solvit centres. 91 00:08:56,680 --> 00:09:01,680 The file is put into an online database and then transmitted to the Solvit centre in France 92 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:05,720 where the problem arose. The affair is then dealt with in record time. 93 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:13,720 In this case it took approximately 10 weeks, and thanks to a very efficient French Solvit 94 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:18,720 centre, they did not need more time than that. 95 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:24,720 I think it's not too bad when you think about all those people and departments that have 96 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:28,720 been involved in this case, so 10 weeks was quite good. 97 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:33,760 10 weeks to solve a problem, that's the challenge met by the 28 Solvit centres. 98 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:36,760 Team spirit and good communication does the rest. 99 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:42,760 I think we got good communication with the Solvit centre in Norway. 100 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,760 It's the only part of the Solvit we have been in touch with. 101 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:50,760 All the communication with Solvit in France was done by the Solvit group in Norway. 102 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:56,760 But we were informed most of the time about the progress, so we feel we were anyway in 103 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:57,760 the progress. 104 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,760 The affair is now settled. The 3,000 euros have been reimbursed and Sunder now possesses...