WRITTEN QUESTION E-1031/96 by Reimer Böge (PPE) to the Commission (3 May 1996)

Subject: European dimension to education in the European Schools

The European schools were founded to provide suitable educational opportunities for the children of officials and other staff of the European institutions. However, one declared aim of the European schools is to provide a European dimension to education and to teach in multinational groups. The education provided should ensure that the process of European integration begins at school. These schools provide an ideal opportunity to win over a considerable number of young people (over 15 500 in the 1996 academic year) as 'ambassadors' for the unification process.

Since around 2/3 of the schools budget is funded from European Community appropriations (the EU contribution for 1996 was around ECU 99m), the schools are presumably subject to EU inspection regarding (inter alia) the fulfilment of their objectives.

I should therefore like to ask the Commission:

1. Are European topics given appropriate consideration in the syllabuses of the European Schools?

2. Is there a guarantee that these syllabuses are adhered to, that the pupils have a detailed knowledge of European topics by the time they leave school, and that they (for example) have a good grounding in the structure and operation of the European Institutions?

3. Does the Commission have sufficient opportunity to represent the interests of the Community in European schools, given that the EU has only one representative on the Board of Governors, who has the same voting rights as each representative of a Member State or the representative of the European Patent Office?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission (3 June 1996)

1. Since the European Schools were set up in 1953, syllabuses have been based on European themes. There has been considerable development in education, and inspectors from each Member State continue to meet regularly, as they always have done, to adjust syllabuses to European ideas.

2. The inspectors, individually or in teams, supervise the application of the current syllabuses, in particular with regard to the structures and operation of the European institutions. Maximum information on their European origins is given daily to the pupils in the schools.

3. The structure of the European Schools is unique in that it combines the responsibility of the Member States for education with the Community concern for the smooth operation of its institutions. It enables management and the breakdown of cost between the Member States and the Community to be based on the various areas of responsibility involved.

Commission participation in the highest body of the European Schools - the Board of Governors - is very important and not devoid of complexity in view of the threefold role it plays and the need to harmonize the various interests in question. Firstly, the Commission, although it has no power to take action on matters such as educational certificates, which are the exclusive responsibility of the Member States, is a full member of the Board of Governors. It is a party to decisions with its right to vote, which can become a right to veto when decisions must be taken unanimously. Secondly, the Commission is the employer of a large number of the parents of the pupils, towards whom it owes a duty of care although they have their own legitimate representatives. Lastly, the Commission, while representing all Community institutions on the Board of Governors, does not neglect its institutional role and acts as the defender of Community interests by ensuring the smooth operation of the institutions.

Here, the Commission attaches great importance to the promotion of Community interests in the various bodies of the European School on which it sits and, for that purpose, it employs all the means at its disposal.