British Ski Instructor Simon Butler From Megeve Wins In Criminal Court And In Appeal In Administrative Court

Skiing's very own Jarndyce and Jarndyce continues to roll, keeping m'learned friends in professional fees.

The takeaway from this is that Buter's criminal case is over and there is a suggestion that he may be able to persue a claim for compensation.

Regarding the Appeal Administrative Court case, the ministry can now go to Conseil d’Etat (French Supreme Court type) and they have to do so in the next 2 months. It would not prevent Butler from working in the interim and to do so would be a risk for the Ministry as a decision from the Conseil d’Etat is even more binding than from the lower Court.

Despite this victory SIN wonders if his request for a Carte Pro' might well recieve the famous response given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram.

According to EC-OE, the European Confederation of Outdoor Employers, after several years of prosecutions, British ski instructor Simon Butler from Megève has scored a victory in Criminal Court and in appeal in Administrative Court (Decision taken on the 5th of December 2019) !

The Préfet of Rhône-Alpes, the Préfet of Isère and the Ministry of sports’ representatives from PNMESA in Grenoble, meticulously disavowed by French Courts, will nowe be forced to deliver Simon Butler’s ski instructor “carte professionelle” without undue delay.

Since 2005 Mr. Simon Butler, British ski instructor, perfectly qualified to teach alpine skiing at the highest level, has been in dispute with the Ministry of sport’s services in charge of dossiers regarding the recognition of European citizens on behalf of the Préfet.

The stakes are high since the French Ministry of sports is also a training provider and alongside the Chamonix ENSA, holds the monopoly of certification for ski instructors and the financial windfall with it. But the stakes are also high for the SNMSF (the French union of ski instructors) that controls the ESF and does not want to share the French labor market with perfectly qualified European citizens, often better qualified and even more competent than many French ski instructors.

If their motivations are slightly different, it is indeed clearly the ESF ski instructor’s lobby, civil party in the court case introduced by the Ministry of sport against Mr. Butler, together combined with the quasi ideological action from the sport’s civil servants, who are attempting to violate competition between European mountain professionals in order to maintain their monopoly over the 320 million euro annual turnover from the ski teaching market for the ESF…

Nevertheless, the Ministry and SNMSF’s juridical quibbles have not convinced the “Cour de Cassation” regarding the criminal aspect of the case nor Lyon’s “Cour Adminsitrative d’Appel” regarding the administrative aspect. Neither Grenoble’s sport civil servants Mr. Vincent BOBO and Marc VERNIER’s repeated attempts to trick the justice into believing that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the Eurotest could replace the European Directive, nor the ESF and their elected or political supports’ repeated attempts to convince that the European Commission’s new Delegated Act could replace the Law, will have finally permit that Mr. Butler should be unduly sentenced.

Mr Butler’s victory is even greater as with him 6 other European ski instructors, holding lower level qualifications than him, have also been recognized as perfectly legitimate to teach ski in France. Now the Préfet only has a few weeks to hand them their “carte professionnelle”.

European law and French justice have finally triumphed over the juridical incompetence and the lobbies from another century, that hamper economic growth of tourism in France and offers obsolete mountain activities to a broad international public actually searching for very different types of services than the ones offered by French hypertechnician who are incapable of adapting to the expectations of a XXIst century clientele in terms of service delivery quality, and have chosen as sole outcome, rather than evolving, to relentlessly try to illegally eliminate competition from the French work market

The « Assises de la Montagne », fittingly taking place in Megève tomorrow are actually for the Ministry of sports’ services and for the SNMSF yet another political manoeuvre aiming at boasting about the alleged virtues of the so-called excellence of French mountain stakeholders, of the ENSA and of the “Pôle National des Métiers de l’Encadrement du Ski et de l’Alpinisme” (PNMESA). This event will only be an opportunity to witness that in terms of European law, local protectionist politics remain fortunately ineffective… European clientele and workers boost French tourism and participate in France’s economic growth, one should never lose sight of this.

However, will Simon Butler be delivered of his Carte Pro'...... watch this space.