European School of Strasbourg

Reply to Written question | Doc. 12362 | 27 September 2010

Author(s):

Committee of Ministers

Origin

adopted at the 1091st meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (16 September 2010) 2010 - Fourth part-session

Reply to Written question

: Written question no. 574 (Doc. 12055)

Thesaurus

1. The European School in Strasbourg has now been up and running since September 2008. The Committee of Ministers would like to take the opportunity to thank the French authorities for their substantial efforts to make this school a reality and for having achieved so much in just over a year.

2. The Committee of Ministers welcomes the fact that the Strasbourg school has been incorporated into the new European School system, whose establishment was spurred on by the European Parliament’s desire to open up the system and made possible by the decision by the Board of Governors of the European Schools to authorise member states to offer European education in establishments referred to as “Type II schools” – whereby national schools are accredited to offer the European curriculum and the European Baccalaureate. In Strasbourg, as in other national establishments running European classes, when enrolling pupils, the establishment must, according to the EU Rules, give priority to Category I children. [(1) Category I staff for the purpose of their chidren’s admission to the European Schools being: “Staff of any Community organisaton set up by an act of the Community Institutions and staff in the service of other organisations recognised by the Board of Governors”. (Digest of Decisions of the Board of Governors/ Rules governing admission to the European Schools. Ch XII.)]

3. The Committee of Ministers considers that the Strasbourg school goes a long way to responding to the needs of the children of the expatriate community, particularly Council of Europe staff and the staff of the permanent representations. It notes that the children of staff of the Council of Europe and the permanent delegations are already given priority to enrol immediately after the children of Community staff.

4. In this context, the Committee of Ministers has been informed that in March 2009, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe wrote to the Chairman of the Board of Governors requesting that the latter explore the possibility of children of members of permanent delegations to the Council of Europe and of Council of Europe staff being included among those with Category I status. The Committee of Ministers would welcome such a development as it would result in further languages being offered by the school. It notes, however, that, in view of the educational and linguistic bases of the European school system, as well as the resources and capacity of the Strasbourg school, it would not be possible for children from non-EU member states whose language is not one of the languages of the European Union to benefit from the schooling on offer in their own language.