23/03/2015

NRC Handelsblad, "Ik ben geen zonnekoning"

NRC Handelsblad published an interview(printable version) titled "I am not a Sun King" with Benoît Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office.
Benoît Battistelli considers that, the judgment of the Court of Appeal in The Hague is "a Dutch interpretation of International Law.""The Court had made a legal mistake [...] In addition to that, the Court has made a wrong interpretation of the facts."

Regarding the suicide of an employee who jumped out the window at the workplace in The Hague in 2013, Benoît Battistelli says that"There was no reason to assume a connection with his work. The Dutch police investigated and found out that it was clearly a suicide. We have no reason to do more. The Labour Inspectorate in the Netherlands has no reason to intervene in such a case. We are not a Dutch agency."

Regarding social dialogue, Battistelli concludes "I'm open. But we also have troublesome unions. A mix of French unions with German efficiency: a dangerous cocktail."

The interview was also published in the paper version of 21 March 2015.Translations in English, French and German are available by scrolling through the document.