Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1 . Free movement of persons - Workers - Equality of treatment - Education in vocational training schools - Concept - University education - Excluded

( EEC Treaty, Art . 128; Regulation No 1612/68 of the Council, Art . 7 ( 3 ) )

2 . EEC Treaty - Scope ratione materiae - Assistance to students for maintenance and training - Inapplicability of the Treaty - Limits - Fees charged for education

( EEC Treaty, Arts 7 and 128 )

3 . Free movement of persons - Workers - Concept - Occupational activity of limited duration undertaken with a view to pursuing university studies in the same field - Inclusion - Social advantages - Grant conditional upon duration of occupational activity - Not permissible

( EEC Treaty, Art . 48; Regulation No 1612/68 of the Council, Art . 7 ( 2 ) )

4 . Free movement of persons - Workers - Equality of treatment - Social advantages - Concept - Assistance granted for maintenance and training with a view to the pursuit of university studies leading to a professional qualification - Inclusion - Limits

( Regulation No 1612/68 of the Council, Art . 7 ( 2 ) )

5 . Free movement of persons - Workers - Entitlement of a worker' s children to access to education provided by the host State - Child born when his parents no longer resided in the host State - Excluded

( Regulation No 1612/68 of the Council, Art . 12 )

Summary

1 . University studies which prepare for a qualification for a particular profession, trade or employment or which provide the necessary training and skills for such a profession, trade or employment constitute vocational training . Universities are not, however, to be regarded as "vocational schools" within the meaning of Article 7 ( 3 ) of Regulation No 1612/68 on freedom of movement for workers within the Community . The term vocational school used in that provision does not include every teaching establishment which provides a measure of vocational training . It refers solely to establishments which provide only instruction sandwiched between periods of employment or else closely connected with employment, particularly during apprenticeship . That is not the case as far as universities are concerned .

2 . Whilst it is true that the conditions for access to vocational training, including university studies in general, fall within the scope of the Treaty for the purposes of Article 7 thereof, assistance given by a Member State to its nationals when they undertake such studies nevertheless falls outside the Treaty, at the present stage of development of Community law, except to the extent to which such assistance is intended to cover registration or other fees, in particular tuition fees, charged for access to education .

3 . The concept of worker within the meaning of Article 48 of the Treaty and of Regulation No 1612/68 has a Community meaning . Any person who pursues an activity which is effective and genuine, to the exclusion of activities on such a small scale as to be regarded as purely marginal and ancillary, is to be treated as a worker . The essential characteristic of the employment relationship is that for a certain period of time a person performs services for and under the direction of another person in return for which he receives remuneration . Community law does not impose any additional conditions for a person to be classifiable as a worker . Accordingly, the Member States cannot unilaterally make the grant of the social advantages contemplated in Article 7 ( 2 ) of the abovementioned regulation conditional upon the completion of a given period of employment .

A national of a Member State who enters into an employment relationship in another Member State for a period of eight months with a view to subsequently undertaking university studies there in the same field of activity and who would not have been employed by his employer if he had not already been accepted for admission to university is therefore to be regarded as a worker within the meaning of Article 7 ( 2 ) of Regulation No 1612/68 .

4 . A grant awarded for maintenance and for training with a view to the pursuit of university studies leading to a professional qualification constitutes a social advantage which may be claimed pursuant to Article 7 ( 2 ) of Regulation No 1612/68 by a national of another Member State who has undertaken, in the host State, after having engaged in an occupation in that State, studies which are linked, by virtue of their subject-matter, with the previous occupation .

It cannot, however, be inferred that a national of a Member State is entitled to a grant for studies by virtue of his status as a worker where it is established that he acquired that status exclusively as a result of his being accepted for admission to university to undertake the studies in question . The employment relationship, which is the only basis for the rights deriving from Regulation No 1612/68, is in such circumstances merely ancillary to the studies to be financed by the grant .

5 . Article 12 of Regulation No 1612/68 must be interpreted as meaning that it grants rights only to a child who has lived with his parents or either one of them in a Member State whilst at least one of his parents resided there as a worker . It cannot therefore create rights for the benefit of a worker' s child who was born after the worker ceased to work and reside in the host State .