Commentary: We talked tò Wilma Dona’ Viscardini about her experience as the first women legal adviser of the European Commission, about the validity of the European Union’s values today and their weight in reshaping Europe’s role internationally.
- You were the first woman legal adviser of the European Commission. What was your academic preparation for this role? What would you suggest to a young person interested in the international legal environment?
I was not prepared for this role because in 1956, when I graduated, the “ECSC” (European Coal and Steel Community) had only been in force for four years and I must say that although I studied law in Padova, I didn’t even know it existed.
My fortune was to meet the man who would later become my husband; he studied political science and was very interested in the international organizations that were being born in those years. Unfortunately he died three years ago, but I owe him my interest in Europe.
I had prepared myself to be a provincial lawyer in Rovigo and when I started the practice I defended thieves of chickens and rabbits; then, thanks to my husband, I began to open my eyes, and look a little further than the borders of my province and even my state.
After graduation, I went to Strasbourg and enrolled at the “Centre Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Européennes”. There I wrote and discussed, with Professor De Soto, a thesis on the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice in ECSC matters, at that time still very limited. Soon after I took the title of attorney who allowed me, subsequently, to become a lawyer.
When the EEC (the European Economic Community) came into force in 1958, I began to inquire whether there was any possibility of joining a Service of the European Commission. I moved to Brussels for 15 days and the first door I knocked on was obviously that of the Legal Service.
I remember being received by the Director-General, the French Michel Gaudet, who, as soon as he saw me, thought I was looking for a job as secretary. When I told him that I was going to be a terrible secretary and that, given my qualifications and education, I would have liked to be the legal adviser of the Commission, he looked at me as if I had said something absurd. He did not tell me clearly that he did not think a woman could perform those functions, but I understood it from the excuses he stammered.
On that occasion I learned that they were looking for Italians for the Statistical Office, a horizontal service of the Commission, which was based in Luxembourg. I presented myself and there they told me that they were looking for an official to take care of the editorial part, so reviewing the texts of the publications and handling the correspondence in Italian. I accepted that post because I hoped it would be easier to get a transfer to the Legal Service later on if there were any possibilities.
I was in Luxembourg for a year and then I moved to Brussels in the offices of the Statistical Office which had been opened in the meantime.
Every time a competition was opened at the Legal Service I would show up but, with one excuse or another, they never took me. I finally realized that they didn’t want me because I was a woman.
I remember that I then went to see the Commissioner politically responsible for the Legal Service. He was a Belgian and his name was Jean Rey. He received me and I asked him how it was possible that every time a spot opened in the Legal Service, with one excuse or another, they did not take me even though I had the right to enter.
He was very sensitive, he talked to the Director General, who tested me and finally hired me. Once I got hired he told me in French “vous êtes la première femme, ça dépendra de vous s’il y en aura un deuxième” (you are the first woman, it will depend on you whether there will be a second one).
In the meantime I got married, had a baby and was expecting a second child, so I imagine that the Legal Service feared that I would not be able to devote myself fully to my work. At that time there was a lot of work, there were no schedules and you had to be always available for any emergencies. But it was a fantastic job for a lawyer and it did not weigh me down because it was during that period that the foundations of a new law, named Community law, were laid.
Two years later a French women colleague arrived and I understood that I had overcome the “challenge” launched by the Director-General: I had proved that, although I was a woman, I could also work with them. The obstacle had been overcome, but no male colleague had ever been asked for such a test.
This is a bit of my story, very particular and not repeatable today. Today there are no more prejudices against women, but there are competitions with very many competitors. It is certain that to enter the Legal Service you must have a degree in law, experience as a lawyer or magistrate and obviously know the law of the European Union well. It would also be useful to have a master’s degree at the “Collège d’Europe” because many teachers are members of the Legal Service.
However, it is not just the Legal Service. The Commission is organised in Directorates-General responsible for various fields and all degrees can be useful. There are internships in the Commission services which can open up many opportunities and facilitate participation in a possible competition.
- What did you do in your office and what were your most important achievements?
All the legal advisers were members of teams specialised in various fields: agriculture, internal market, competition, etc… There was also a rotation system where you went from one sector to another and this was very useful when I decided to leave the Commission to be a lawyer in Italy: having had experience of different sectors, I had an overall view of the Community’s problems and was thus able to engage in various types of practice.
One of the tasks of the Legal Service, and therefore also mine, was to review the acts which the Directorates-General prepared and submitted to the Commission for approval. I must say that in my day no decision was taken without a favourable opinion from the Legal Service. The Commission was indeed very careful to move in the area of legality
The most important task, however, is that of representing the Commission before the Court of Justice. As you know, Community law is directly applicable in the Member States and can be invoked before national courts. There are many cases that arise in the Member States and which are based on EU rules for which national courts can, and in some cases must, ask the Court of Justice of the European Union (which has its seat in Luxembourg and is not to be confused with the Court of Human Rights, which has its seat in Strasbourg) to rule on the correct interpretation or validity of these rules. This is the so-called reference for a preliminary ruling, following which a real case is brought before the Court in which the Commission intervenes, represented by its own legal adviser acting as agent, to make known its point of view.
The Commission also has the task of ensuring that Member States apply Community law: the Commission can therefore sue those Member States which are in breach and it is always the members of the legal service who represent it.
In addition, there are cases that companies bring against the Commission, for example on competition matters, and the Commission has to defend itself, always represented by its legal advisers acting as agents. Let’s say that, in this case, the role of the Legal Service is similar to that of the General Counsel of the State in Italy.
It should be stressed that the Commission is obliged to respect the language of procedure, which can currently be, depending on the case, one of the 24 official languages. ( In my day there were fewer official languages because there were fewer Member States).
One of the most important achievements I have made has been defending the Commission alone before the Court of Justice for the first time. There was a reference for a preliminary ruling concerning an issue which I dealt with and it was only logical that I should be the agent of the Commission. However, the “big heads” of the Legal Service questioned whether it was appropriate to send a woman to represent the Commission to the Court and they had a lot of discussions. In the end they decided to give me the job and I must say that, before the Court, I had no problems. I even managed to get a thesis accepted which was not entirely in line with what the senior advisers of the Legal Service were saying, and that was my greatest satisfaction.
I remember that, when the task was completed, I sent Gaudet the analysis of the sentence (the Director-General who had been so hesitant to hire me and who had since retired) who answered me saying that he looked with confidence at the project of one of his daughters to become a magistrate just thinking about me. So I was for him an example of how even a woman (although young at the time) could pursue a legal career.
- In an interview with the Gazzettino you said that when you joined the European Commission you were told that hiring more women would depend on your performance. How did this great responsibility affect your early work years?
I had to work a lot but it was not very hard because I liked my job and, except at the beginning, when I had to clarify that I wasn’t a new secretary, I didn’t have any difficulties with colleagues. However, I remember a meeting of the Council of the European Communities during which the Legal Service raised a problem for which they needed to consult a lawyer from the Commission. That day I was the only one who knew the file so I showed up. I still can remember the incredulity in the faces of the experts in that room when they saw me, the legal adviser of the Commission, dressed in a skirt and blouse with a big pink bow, moreover pregnant ( I was expecting my second child). But I did well and after that I was completely accepted and, I must say, appreciated.
- Today, some prejudices towards women seem to have been largely overcome and women in Europe have performed tasks of absolute importance, which are in your opinion the current prejudices and towards which categories?
If you think that today the President of the Commission is a woman, the President of the European Central Bank is a woman, the President of the European Parliament is a woman, one cannot but agree that great steps forward have been made. Now in Italy even the judiciary is open to women ( while it was closed to women when I graduated) and there are almost more women judges than men. I do not believe that there are still prejudices. When I opened a law firm in Italy, in a field like Community law that nobody knew about, I started to have clients and with them I never had problems. Of course I can’t tell you if I would have had more customers if I was a man, but those that turned to me always did It with confidence.
The obstacle for women is unfortunately motherhood because it is very difficult to reconcile work and family. I strongly advise all girls not to be discouraged and to pursue their professional ambitions without giving up on family. I did it. I had only three months of leave for each child (at the time there were six weeks before and six weeks after the birth) and I had three children. I didn’t take an extra day, I didn’t want to not be available if there were important meetings, maybe after hours. So I did everything to overcome this problem and of course I had my husband very close.
- Are the reasons and values which inspired the idea of a European community still relevant? Do you think there is a risk that we may return to a fragmentation of individual states?
The objectives remain valid and I would say more now. Unfortunately, the European Communities were born with limited objectives, on the assumption that, gradually, thanks to economic integration, that political integration would be facilitated, but this has not been the case. A partial monetary union has been achieved, because 20 Member States are members and not all of them, and this is already a great step forward, but foreign policy, defence policy and fiscal policy are still prerogative of the Member States. In theory, the European Union could also take decisions on these matters, at least in part, but all unanimously. With 27 states it is difficult to find a consensus and, if one is reached, it is always at the lowest common denominator. I believe that we need a stronger European Union now more than ever. In past years we had the protection of the United States, in relations with Russia for example; today it seems that America wants to leave us to our fate, if we are not united, we do not count for anything.
So I hope that the difficulties of the moment will make it clear to our leaders that we must take a step forward towards a more integrated, more political Union. In short, I hope that we will obtain the “United States of Europe” like there is the “United States of America”. It is up to the governments of the Member States because each has its own little garden and it is obvious that, by giving more powers to the European Union, it loses some of its own. However, it must be said that the decisions of the European Union are not taken by a Martian authority but still by the Council (as well as the European Parliament) composed of representatives from all the Member States. I believe that they should accept the rule of majority, at least qualified, because it is clear that as long as you decide unanimously you do not change much.
- How do you see the role of the European Union in the new world order?
The idea of the founders of Europe was not to create a fortress, but to open themselves to the world in a relationship of dialogue and collaboration. But now we are experiencing a difficult time. As I said before, the European Union does not have much say because it does not yet have all the competences it would need. The sovereignist movements, which seem to be taking hold, are trying to return to nationalism, but this makes no sense to me. To dialogue with the great powers, the only ones that really matter, Europe must also present itself as a great power. And it is so from the economic point of view, but as long as it remains composed of many sovereign states and statelets, it is not so from a political point of view. Yet the role of Europe could be very important if it were truly united, cohesive and spoke with one voice; It could then become a beacon for the rest of the world for its values and how it has managed to guarantee years and years of peace between populations that had been constantly at war for centuries. We have been able to find and secure peace among ourselves, but we cannot guarantee it outside if we do not have the strength to impose ourselves. They reproach us for not having a dialogue with Russia on the Ukraine problem: the fact is that we do not have enough voice and are not strong enough to be heard.
- You have been involved for some years, thanks to the project “Conoscere meglio L’Europa” (Know Europe Better), in raising young people’s awareness of the values and role of the European Union, how was the project born and what results did you see?
I am a member of the Lions, a service association that has among its objectives to help citizens be good citizens. Given our experience in the European field, my husband and I, 15-16 years ago, proposed this initiative to our Lions district, which would help to help young people become good European citizens. The initiative consists of students filling out a questionnaire with various questions about the European Union, ranging from its institutional system, to the acts it can adopt, the aims it pursues and what it has achieved so far. It’s an initiative proposed to schools in Veneto, which we lead in collaboration with the regional school office. Both middle and high schools are involved. At the beginning of the school year schools that want to join do so spontaneously. Many teachers find it interesting and a useful support for their teaching activity, also because we provide them with a vademecum with the exact answers and a comment. Based on the number of correct answers, the children get a grade ranging from sufficient to excellent, but it is not a competition. At the end of the year we organize a ceremony during which the results are proclaimed and certificates are distributed to the first place school. For two years a very good theatre group has been staging, during the ceremony, a very emotional show on the birth of Europe after the horrors of the Second World War.
There are about 1,500 young people who participate every year in the initiative, which aims to make them aware that, as well as Italian citizens, they are also European citizens and let them know the rights and duties that follow.
We especially want to provide them with correct information about the European Union because very often what they learn from the press, social media or television is superficial, sometimes inaccurate, if not even distorted according to the political ideologies. We are happy with the result. Every year we receive compliments from teachers, who thank us because it is a little help that we give to the schools.
- You still work with such passion after all these years, what is the secret to cultivate your ambitions and succeed in a prestigious career like yours?
I like the work I do. I am proud to have opened my own law firm specializing in Community law at a time when hardly anyone in Italy knew what Community law was. I set up a Community law “boutique” and ran it for many years practically alone. I have had clients who have appreciated the personal relationship they have been able to establish with me and the results obtained. Thanks to the experience acquired during my years of activity at the Legal Service of the Commission in Brussels, and to my commitment and… with a bit of luck, I’ve won several important cases. It went well, I gave a lot but without suffering because I worked with passion. Even now, despite having handed over the management of the firm to my son ( also a lawyer and equally passionate about Community law) I am here every day. I’m also lucky enough to be well despite my age..
In any case, you must willingly do what you do, commit yourself with enthusiasm. Of course, much depends on the character you have: I am one of those who always see the glass half full and I am very perseverant in trying to get what I want. With my experience, I want to say to all the girls: don’t give up on your ambitions, have confidence in yourself, but don’t give up on having a family. As far as I am concerned, I must say that despite all the professional satisfaction I have had, what is still most important to me are my children.
Resources:
https://www.dovislex.eu/it/index.php?page=about-us
