WRITTEN QUESTION E-0474/04 by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission. Closure of certain language sections of the European Schools.
Date: 2004-02-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, European school, language teaching, linguistic discrimination, organisation of teaching

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/597

their living standard after retirement’. These objectives are not legally binding, and national pension
systems may differ considerably in their approach. However, the result should be to guarantee retired
people a standard of living that is not too different from that of the active population.

As life expectancy is increasing and people on average can look forward to a longer retirement, the
indexing of current pensions becomes an important factor in determining pensioners’ standard of living.
Most statutory pensions schemes provide for price indexing, while in some Member States indexing is at
least partly based on wages (1). Benefits payable under supplementary schemes are generally either fixed in
nominal terms or price-indexed.

The Commission has no plans for a communication to Member States calling on them to change their
pensions indexing systems. Any such action could be interpreted as a move towards the harmonisation of
legislation, which is explicitly ruled out by Article 137(2) of the EC Treaty. Furthermore, the question of
adequacy must be considered in a wider context, taking account of all the common objectives (including
those relating to financial sustainability) as well as other benefits that are important from the point of view
of older people’s quality of life. In this connection it may be legitimate for a Member State to decide to
limit price indexing of pensions, which may make it possible either to offer higher pensions immediately
after retirement or to finance other benefits for older people. The needs of retired people do in fact change
with age, and older pensioners may have more need for benefits in kind (health care and long-term
nursing care) than cash benefits.

(1)

For more details see website ‘Missoc (cid:1) Social protection in the Member States and the European Economic Area’
(http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/missoc/index_en.html).

(2004/C 84 E/0672)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0474/04

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(23 February 2004)

Subject: Closure of certain language sections of the European Schools

It would appear from a Commission document that there are plans to close the Italian, Dutch and German
sections of four European schools (Bergen, Culham, Mol and Karlsruhe).

The Commission:

1. Can it confirm the report and explain the reasons for taking this step?

2. Does it not think that these closures would be prejudicial to the rights of the families of staff working
in the centres concerned to educate their children in the culture of their country of origin, through
their mother tongue?

3. Does it not consider that children who are unable to attend a section in their own language and are
therefore obliged to attend another language section could become victims of cultural colonialisation
in languages which are becoming even more dominant because of arrangements of this kind?

4.

Should the cultural and linguistic diversity extolled in official speeches and texts not also be respected
in the system of European Schools, which, among other things, sets an inspiring example of how a
European dimension can be achieved in education?

C 84 E/598

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

5. What action does the Commission intend to propose to Member State governments to ensure that the
European schools find organisational and funding solutions that will guarantee respect for the right to
cultural diversity?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(19 March 2004)

The Commission is a Member of the 16 Member Board of Governors of the European Schools with the
other Board Members being appointed by each Member State government.
In that capacity the
Commission put on the agenda of the January 2004 meeting of the Board a request that the criteria
agreed by the Board of Governors in October 2000 in relation to the opening, maintenance and closure of
language sections in European Schools (the so-called ‘Gaignage’ report criteria), be applied in relation to
certain language sections in the European Schools of Culham, Mol, Bergen and Karlsruhe.

These criteria, unanimously adopted by the Board of Governors
representing all Member State
governments in 2000, specified that a language section should be closed if, over a two-year period, there
are 37 or fewer pupils in the entire primary section and 42 or fewer pupils in the entire secondary section,
or if the numbers of category I pupils (children of EU staff) are low.

These two criteria can be applied separately, but they both apply in fact to the Italian and Dutch sections
in Culham, the Italian section in Mol, the Italian and German sections in Bergen, and the Dutch section in
Karlsruhe. In the Italian section in Karlsruhe, although the pupil numbers are slightly higher than the
minimum specified by the Gaignage criteria, the pupils are almost exclusively category III pupils (children
whose parents have no link to EU institutions). That brings the second Gaignage criteria fully into effect.

Detailed figures on pupil numbers in each school and each language section will readily be provided to the
Honourable Member by the Commission. By way of example, in the Italian language section in the Mol
European School, there are currently only five primary age pupils and 13 secondary age pupils with only
two being children of EU staff, while in the Dutch language section in the Culham European School there
are 32 primary age pupils and 33 secondary age pupils (cid:1) none of the pupils being children of EU staff.

The Commission is committed to the principle that a multi-lingual European education be available for the
children of EU staff in all locations where there are EU Institutions and certainly does not subscribe to any
form of ‘cultural colonialism’. However, on the issue of language sections the Commission and the
remainder of the Board of Governors believe that,
in locations with few EU staff, the multi-lingual
European education offered by European Schools may be delivered in different ways, and cannot always be
in the mother tongue of each child. The situation at Culham, in particular, is further complicated by the
fact that there are no longer any EU institutions or EU staff there.

The Commission asks the Honourable Member to note that, under the criteria adopted, the language
sections are only gradually to be phased out and will not suddenly be closed. After a decision reflecting the
relevant criteria is taken, linguistic sections continue to function at least for a further six academic years
until the current cycles of primary, secondary and baccalaureate teaching are finished (in this case, until
July 2011).

The Commission sees no valid arguments for preserving artificially, and at great expense to the tax payer
and EU budget, very small language sections in small European Schools, particularly in the light of the
Bösch Report (cid:1) adopted by the Parliament in 2002 (cid:1) concerning the financing of the European Schools
and the need for better financial management, taking account of growing spending needs arising from EU
enlargement and the necessary creation of new Polish, Hungarian and Czech sections in the Brussels and
Luxembourg European Schools.