REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT The European Schools’ system in 2010
Date: 2011-12-19
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European school, education policy, educational administration

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 19.12.2011 
COM(2011) 892 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

The European Schools’ system in 2010 

 
 
 
 
  
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 

The European Schools’ system in 2010 

1. 

2. 

2.1. 

2.2. 

2.3. 

2.4. 

2.5. 

2.6. 

2.7. 

2.8. 

2.9. 

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4 

Situation in the schools ................................................................................................ 5 

Alicante ........................................................................................................................ 5 

Bergen .......................................................................................................................... 5 

Brussels ........................................................................................................................ 5 

Culham ......................................................................................................................... 6 

Frankfurt....................................................................................................................... 6 

Karlsruhe ...................................................................................................................... 6 

Luxembourg ................................................................................................................. 7 

Mol ............................................................................................................................... 7 

Munich ......................................................................................................................... 7 

2.10.  Varese........................................................................................................................... 7 

3. 

3.1. 

3.2. 

3.3. 

4. 

4.1. 

4.2. 

4.3. 

4.4. 

4.5. 

5. 

5.1. 

5.2. 

5.3. 

5.4. 

Budgetary developments and challenges ..................................................................... 8 

Figures for the execution of the 2010 budget............................................................... 8 

Main events .................................................................................................................. 8 

2011 Draft Budget........................................................................................................ 8 

Political developments and challenges......................................................................... 9 

Reform.......................................................................................................................... 9 

Internal Audits............................................................................................................ 10 

Culham ....................................................................................................................... 10 

Overcrowding/infrastructure ...................................................................................... 11 

Legal cases ................................................................................................................. 11 

Pedagogical and organisational developments and challenges.................................. 12 

Revision of the salary grid of seconded teachers/charges de cours........................... 12 

The European baccalaureate reform........................................................................... 12 

Actions for pupils with Special Education Needs (SEN)........................................... 13 

Repeat rates ................................................................................................................ 13 

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5.5. 

Organisation of courses and classes........................................................................... 14 

6. 

Future challenges ....................................................................................................... 14 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

The European Schools’ system in 2010 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

1.  The  main  challenge  for  the  system  of  the  European  Schools  under  the  Slovenian  and 
Slovak  presidencies  in  2010  has  been  to  deal  with  the  overall  economic  situation  and  its 
impact on the schools’ finances. 

Given the rising public contribution to the budget of the European School system, partly due 
to diminished revenue from contracts with outside organisations and school fees, the Board of 
Governors,  with  the  support  of  the  Commission,  made  the  approval  of  the  2011  budget 
conditional on a revision of certain expenses.  

To  fulfil  these  conditions,  the  adaptation  of  the  salary  grid  for  new  seconded  teachers  was 
adopted  in  December  2010,  based  on  a  Commission  proposal.  A  proposal  to  adjust  the 
salaries of locally recruited staff accordingly is the next step. These measures were necessary 
to  apply  the  principles  of  the  2004  Staff  Regulations  reform  to  the  European  Schools 
conditions  of  employment.  Clear  criteria  were  tabled  to  improve  the  integration  of  children 
with  special  educational  needs  into  teaching,  prioritise  pedagogical  needs  whilst  respecting 
the  available  resources,  and  take  a  more  cost-efficient  approach  to  organising  studies  and 
courses. Ideally these measures should be taken for the school year 2011/2012. At the same 
time, regulations for SWALS pupils (students without a language section) will be clarified to 
prevent a repeat of past misunderstandings. 

Following difficult negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council, the 2011 
budget of the European Union, for the first time adopted under the Lisbon Treaty, was only 
agreed to in December. It gave a smaller increase in the budget of the European schools than 
expected, meaning that measures must be taken immediately to yield real savings.  

2. The reform process of the European Schools’ system, formally decided in spring 2009 after 
an  initial  transition  phase,  is  gradually  progressing.  To  render  the  system  more  efficient  in 
terms  of  governance,  reforms  at  central  and  local  level  to  give  more  autonomy  to  local 
schools within the boundaries of the rules and financial regulations are being put into practice. 

Several local schools have asked for accreditation, allowing more children to benefit from the 
European Curriculum. The Commission took a big step forward by adopting the legal basis to 
put into effect the EU financial contribution for children of staff attending accredited schools. 

3. Efforts on cost sharing have not reached the level required. In addition to the problem of a 
constant  lack  of  seconded  teachers  and  the  resultant  increase  in  the  EU  contribution  (€ 2.2 
million  in  2010),  some  Member  States  have  already  stated  that  they  will  have  important 
difficulties to second teachers to newly created posts. 

4. The schools in Brussels and Luxembourg still suffer from overpopulation but the building 
works for the two new schools to open in 2012 are progressing according to schedule. Since 

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the school population in Brussels is still expected to grow, the Board of Governors agreed to 
create  a  fifth  school  in  Brussels  in  2015.  Solutions  to  the  problem  of  overpopulation  in  the 
Frankfurt school are being examined with the German Authorities. 

2. 

SITUATION IN THE SCHOOLS  

2.1. 

Alicante 

The  school  population  in  Alicante  rose  slightly  by  112  new  pupils  to  reach  1040 
pupils in four linguistic sections. The Spanish section is  the biggest with 36.5 % of 
the population. 

2.2. 

Bergen 

Pupil numbers rose slightly by about 4 % from 586 for the school year 2009/2010 to 
608 for the school year 2010/2011. The parents of the vast majority of pupils (over 
80 %) are not employed by a European institution or agency. This means that Bergen 
is one of the schools with the lowest proportion of children of staff of the institutions. 
Major  work  on  the  sports  hall  and  the  air  conditioning  system  has  been  postponed 
until summer 2011.  

2.3. 

Brussels 

The pupil population in the European Schools in Brussels increased from 9547 pupils 
during  the  school  year  2009/2010  to  9847  in  2010/2011  (up  3.1 %).  As  a  result, 
overpopulation  continued  in  the  three  overcrowded  schools  (Brussels  I,  II  and  III) 
where  the  use  of  the  common  facilities,  such  as  playgrounds,  sports  halls  and 
canteens, were stretched even further.  

However,  the  school  in  Uccle  did  see  a  slight  reduction  from  3112  to  3074  pupils 
since  last  year  (-1.2 %).  The  school  focused  on  security  this  year  to  improve 
procedures.  

The school in Woluwe saw an increase of 1.9 % of its population from 3030 pupils to 
3089 pupils and its infrastructure continued to pose great challenges for the practical 
organisation of school life. On the positive side, the building works to create a bus 
stop  outside  the  school  premises  started  in  autumn  2010  and  are  expected  to  be 
operational  for  the  start  of  the  school  year  2011/2012.  This  would  mean  that  the 
buses (almost 50) will no longer park on the school playground on a daily basis. 

The school in Ixelles welcomed 91 more pupils in 2010 to reach a total population of 
2902 pupils (2811 for the school year 2009/2010). Its population increased by 3.2 % 
in September 2010. 

The school of Brussels IV saw the sharpest rise in school population of 26.6 %, from 
594 pupils in the school year 2009/2010 to 809 pupils for the school year 2010/2011. 
In  September  2010,  the  first  year  of  secondary  school  was  opened.  The  Belgian 
authorities provided additional infrastructure in form of the building ‘Berkendael 66’, 
which was renovated and added to the temporary site of Brussels IV. Vice-President 
Šefčovič and Minister Simonet inaugurated the building during an official ceremony.  

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The Brussels schools welcome 43.3 % of the entire population of European schools.  

Given the estimates of further rises in the demand for schooling, especially children 
of  staff  following  recent  enlargements  of  the  EU,  the  Board  of  Governors  decided 
that  a  5th  school  would  be  needed  in  2015.  The  Commission,  in  its  role  as 
representative  of  the  EU,  fully  supports  the  project.  It  has  informed  the  budgetary 
authorities  and  followed  the  procedure  in  Article  47  of  the  Interinstitutional 
Agreement on budgetary discipline and sound financial management. 

After several years’ discussions on an external audit to evaluate the capacity of the 
Brussels’ schools, the interested parties (Régie des bâtiments, Commission, Office of 
the Secretary-General) decided not to undertake the audit for budgetary reasons and 
agreed to set the capacity of the schools as follows: 

Brussels I (Uccle): 
Brussels II (Woluwé): 
Brussels III (Ixelles): 
Brussels IV (Laeken): 

3100 
2850 
2650 
2800 

2.4. 

Culham 

In  line  with  the  decision  of  the  Board  of  Governors  of  2007,  steps  were  taken  to 
gradually  phase  out  until  2017  the  type  I  European  school  and  transform  it  into  an 
‘Academy’ under the national British education system as accredited type II school. 
However, in the beginning of 2011, the British sponsor reversed this decision. As a 
consequence,  the  initial  decision  of  the  Board  of  Governors,  also  taken  in  2007,  to 
phase out the school gradually in view of a final closure in 2017 will be implemented 
(see 4.3. below).  

2.5. 

Frankfurt 

The school population has a high growth rate as a result of the increase in the number 
of  staff  at  the  European  Central  Bank.  It  faces  real  saturation  problems  since  the 
German  authorities  have  not  yet  made  the  necessary  improvements  to  its 
infrastructure. The school plans to introduce an enrolment policy. 

In December 2010, the Board of Governors endorsed the proposal to make a gradual 
reduction  in  the  contribution  from  the  Italian  government  and  from  the  ECB  to 
finance the Italian language section, which puts an additional strain on the schools’ 
finances. A contract between the Secretary-General, the Italian government and the 
ECB was the basis for creating the Italian section in 2002.  

2.6. 

Karlsruhe 

The  school  population  was  stable  but  the  proportion  of  pupils  that  are  category  1 
pupils1 was still well below 20 %: for the school year 2010/11, the population in the 
European School in Karlsruhe was 952 pupils, with 177 category 1 pupils (18%), 267 
category 2 (28%) and 508 category 3 pupils (54%). Out of the 177 category 1 pupils, 

1 

Category  1  pupils  are  pupils  who  have  to  be  admitted  by  the  European  Schools.  These  pupils  are 
exempt from school fees. 

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68  are  children  of  school  staff,  and  only  109  (11%  of  the  school  population)  are 
children  of  staff  of  the  European  institutions.  Karlsruhe  has  the  highest  number  of 
contracts with companies (category 2 pupils).  

2.7. 

Luxembourg 

The  site  of  Luxembourg  I  school  currently  hosts  the  temporary  set-up  of  the 
Luxembourg  II  school.  Overcrowding  is  a  serious  problem  in  the  Luxembourg 
European Schools and consequently, a restrictive enrolment policy is applied to the 
children of non-EU staff. 

The  Commission  welcomes  the  additional  transitory  infrastructure  provided  by  the 
Luxemburg authorities in September 2010 on the Luxembourg I, (Kirchberg site) to 
meet the needs. However, the additional infrastructure also means an increase in the 
school’s  population  on  the  site,  and  therefore  exacerbates  overcrowding.  The 
permanent  structure  of  the  Luxembourg  II  school  is  planned  to  open  in  2012  in 
Bertrange Mamer. In the meantime, overpopulation is critical and the timing of the 
opening of Luxembourg II is absolutely crucial. 

The  Luxembourg authorities have offered  to organise transport  for pupils attending 
Luxembourg  II,  and  discussions  on  the  practical  aspects  continued  during  the  year. 
Since Luxembourg II is located in Betrange/Mamer, adequate transport is of crucial 
importance  to  pupils  and  parents.  School  transport  is  normally  organised  by  the 
parents’  association  in  the  European  Schools  so  the  offer  by  the  Luxembourg 
authorities to take on this responsibility on board is exceptional.  

2.8.  Mol 

The school population in Mol continues to grow, reaching 790 pupils in September 
2010.  The  new  English  section  continued  to  prosper  and  is  now  the  second  most 
populous section. The German section is still decreasing, 46 pupils down from 77 the 
previous year. The development and sustainability of the German sections will need 
to  be  reviewed  by  the  Board  of  Governors,  as  it  was  a  condition  for  opening  the 
English section. 

2.9.  Munich 

The  school  continues  to  have  a  high  growth  rate,  as  a  result  of  the  increase  in  the 
number of staff of the European Patent Office, whose children account for over three 
quarters of pupils. Since construction of the annex to the current buildings, approved 
by  the  German  authorities,  is  due  to  be  finished  in  2016,  a  restrictive  enrolment 
policy will be adopted until then. 

2.10.  Varese 

The school population remains stable, though, as a result of the economic crisis, the 
school has lost  many  children of staff of  entities  that had signed  contracts with  the 
school (category 2) and suffers from reduced income.  

Following  intervention  by  the  Commission,  the  Italian  authorities  announced  a 
payment  of  €400 000  to  be  invested  in  the  infrastructure  to  meet  the  most  urgent 
needs. 

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3. 

BUDGETARY DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES  

3.1. 

Figures for the execution of the 2010 budget  

The total number of pupils rose by 2% from 2009 to 2010, from 22.331 to 22.778. 
The  share  of  children  of  EU  staff  (16 613  pupils)  was  about  73 %  of  the  total 
population, whereas children of staff from entities having signed contracts with the 
school fell to 5.2 % (1184 pupils) and children of private families fell to 21.9 % (4981 
pupils). However, some small schools still have a very limited number of category 1 
pupils. 

3.2.  Main events  

In  December  2009,  the  Council  of  Minister’s  decision  granted  a  salary  increase  of 
1.85 %  for  staff  of  the  institutions,  instead  of  the  3.7 %  according  to  the 
implementation  of  the  salary  method.  The  European  institutions  instigated  a 
procedure  before  the  European  Court  of  Justice,  which  backed  them  in  December 
2010.  The  salary  adjustments  for  teachers  and  seconded  staff  in  the  European 
Schools’  system  are  linked  to  the  above  decisions.  As  a  result,  the  first  salary 
increase  was  approved  by  the  Board  of  Governors  in  January  2010,  a  commitment 
corresponding  to  the  amount  of  €3.1  million  was  carried  over  and  payments  were 
made in 2010. 

In August  2010,  the Board of Governors adopted  an  amending  budget to insert  the 
€3.1  million  mentioned  above,  a  final  surplus  from  2009  of  €2.8  million  and 
expenditure savings of €1.5 million to compensate for a shortfall of other income of 
€4.1 million.  

2010 ended with a surplus of €1.7 million. The lack of seconded staff accounted for 
an additional budgetary strain of €2.2 million compared to €2.1 million in 2009 on 
the EU budget and posed major pedagogical problems. Teachers not provided by the 
Member States are to be replaced by locally recruited staff, financed to a large extent 
by the EU budget. This phenomenon is likely to increase since some Member States 
have already informed the Board of Governors that in the current economic context 
they  may  not  be  in  a  position  to  second  teachers  for  new  posts.  This  will  lead  to 
increased structural problems. 

Given  the  discovery  of  non-compliance  with  the  rules  governing  some  classes  of 
mother tongue language in five schools for students without a linguistic section, the 
Commission  was  not  in  a  position  to  discharge  the  2008  budget  at  the  Board  of 
Governors  meeting  in  April  2010.  As  a  result,  the  schools  were  asked  to  submit 
details  of  the  number  of  courses  created  that  did  not  comply  with  the  rules  in 
previous years to enable the Commission to calculate the amounts to  be recovered. 
Since  the  schools  made  efforts  to  rectify  the  situation,  wherever  pedagogically 
feasible, the Commission only initiated one recovery order, to the European School 
in Karlsruhe. 

3.3. 

2011 Draft Budget  

The 2011 draft budget, approved by the Board of Governors in April 2010, showed 
an  increase  in  the  Commission’s  contribution  of  11 %,  from  € 154  million  to 

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€ 171 million,  while  for  the  same  period  the  number  of  pupils  increased  by  3.6 %. 
Therefore,  the  draft  2011  budget  was  adopted  under  the  condition  that  structural 
measures be taken to reduce expenditure, in particular on revising the salary grid of 
seconded  teachers,  organisation of courses and classes and  definition of criteria for 
SEN children (for more details, see point 5). 

Since 85 % of the budget of the European Schools is spent on salaries, which depend 
on  remuneration  and  the  amount  of  classes  given,  these  measures  provide  for  real 
economies. 

The 2011 budget of the European Union was adopted in December 2010, for the first 
time  according  to  the  procedures  under  the  Lisbon  Treaty.  It  was  the  product  of 
difficult  negotiations  between  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council.  The 
allocation  for  the  European  Schools  was  set  at  € 164  million.  This  exceptional 
situation reinforced the need to implement the above-mentioned measures. 

As  a  consequence,  the  Board  of  Governors  implemented  its  2011  budget  in  twelve 
instalments, and the 2011 amended budget was approved in April 2011. 

4. 

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES  

4.1. 

Reform 

In  2009,  the  Board  of  Governors  adopted  the  decision  on  reform  of  the  European 
Schools. It entered into force on 1 September 2009 for organisational issues and on 
1 September 2010 for internal rules on the functioning of the Administrative Board, 
after a review of existing rules. 

One of the major aspects of the reform is to open up the European Schools’ system to 
national schools. This process was launched by European Parliament Resolutions in 
2002 and 2005, and started with the definition of criteria and approval for European 
schooling  in  2005.  In  the  light  of  the  first  few  years  of  experience,  the  Secretary-
General (SG) presented a review of the situation, showing that although the process 
had  benefited  from  political  will  of  the  European  Parliament  and  real  educational 
needs  (after  enlargement,  many  agencies  opened  up  in  the  Member  States),  it  had 
been hampered by legal educational, organisational or financial concerns, especially 
relating  to  the  European  Baccalaureate.  The  SG  was  given  a  mandate  to  submit 
proposals for improvement to be discussed at the Board of Governors in April 2011.  

At present, five accredited type II schools, close to European institutions or agencies 
in Italy, Ireland, Greece, Finland and France deliver the European curriculum. They 
differ a lot in organisation, size, number of language sections offered and number of 
children of EU staff in the school. So far only the Italian school has held European 
baccalaureate  examinations.  The  second  school  to  join  in  2013  is  due  to  be  the 
Finnish  school,  whose  dossier  of  conformity  for  S6-S7  (the  second  phase  of  the 
accreditation process) was approved by the BoG in December. 

Two more schools in Manosque (France) and in The Hague (Netherlands) are in the 
process of accreditation for type II schools.  

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The dossier of conformity of a German school in Bad Vilbel has been approved for a 
first  project  of  a  type  III  school,  which  does  not  require  proximity  to  an  EU 
institution or agency. 

One big step forward has been taken by the Commission’s decision to grant an EU 
contribution  for  each  child  of  EU  staff  in  type  II  schools,  for  the  first  time  for  the 
school  year  2009-2010.  This  is  a  way  to  help  the  schools  cope  with  the  additional 
costs arising from European schooling and the baccalaureate. 

The  project  to  transform  the  European  school  in  Culham  into  a  type  II  school  was 
cancelled by the British authorities (see 4.3.) 

The  problem  of  insufficient  number  of  seconded  teachers  from  the  Member  States 
was addressed under the ‘cost-sharing’ part of the reform. It was agreed to open up 
the  possibility  for  countries  to  second  non-native  speakers  to  reduce  the  burden  on 
the  Member  States  seconding  teachers  for  the  three  vehicular  languages.  However, 
after two years, only a few Member States are prepared to fill these posts.  

Concerning  governance  at  central  and  local  level,  it  was  agreed  to  increase  the 
autonomy and responsibilities of schools at local level. Implementation is a gradual 
process and best practice is being developed.  

At  the  Administrative  Board  meetings  in  the  autumn,  the  schools  presented  all  the 
statistical data of the new school year. In line with procedures, at the beginning of the 
year, schools present their annual and multi-annual school plan with their objectives, 
priorities and the draft budget. In springtime, the school presents the annual activity 
plan  to  the  Secretary-General  and  the  Board  of  Governors,  assessing  whether  the 
objectives have been met and the budgetary limits respected. This enables checks to 
be made at central level.  

4.2. 

Internal Audits 

The  Commission’s  Internal  Audit  Service  (IAS)  continues  to  perform  the  internal 
auditing  function  in  the  European  Schools  system,  which  was  created  under  the 
Financial Regulation that entered into force in 2007.  

The results of an audit of human resources management conducted by the IAS were 
presented  to  the  Board  of  Governors  at  its  April  2010  meeting,  together  with  the 
responses and action plans of the Office of the Secretary-General and of the Schools. 
Further  progress  was  made  during  the  year  on  implementing  the  recommendations 
made  in  the  audit,  particularly  on  staff  recruitment,  evaluation  procedures  and 
development of a training policy. Additional efforts are required to progress on the 
‘cross-cutting issues’ identified by the IAS that concern the system as a whole, such 
as the corporate responsibilities of the General Secretariat. 

4.3. 

Culham 

Several steps were taken to continue to transform the type I European School into an 
accredited  type  II  school  within  the  European  School  system  and  an  ‘Academy’ 
under  the  British  education  system  until  2017,  thus  paving  the  way  to  offer  in  the 
future a European curriculum and deliver the European Baccalaureate. 

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The conformity dossier, the second step in the accreditation process, was accepted by 
the Board of Governors in December, subject to the condition that a legally binding 
document  be  signed  between  the  stakeholders  in  order  to  confirm  the  reciprocal 
commitments  (‘legacy  agreement’)  and  that  bilateral  agreements  between  the 
seconded staff and the Academy be signed (‘secondment agreements’). 

Much effort and energy was invested in the transformation project, especially by the 
Secretary-General  and  the  Commission.  The  Commission  created  a  new  legal  base 
for this special case of accreditation, the first transformation of a type I school into a 
type II school. Major negotiations on budgetary and legal issues took place between 
the parties involved. At the beginning of this year, the British sponsor withdrew its 
commitment to the transformation procedure, stating that he was not in a position to 
sign a legally binding agreement as requested by the European Commission. 

Since the transformation into an Academy failed, the initial decision of the Board of 
Governors taken in 2007 to phase out the school gradually with final closure in 2017 
will be implemented. 

4.4. 

Overcrowding/infrastructure 

In  several  locations,  the  demand  for  places  has  exceeded  supply  for  several  years. 
The schools most affected by this situation are in Brussels, Luxembourg, Frankfurt 
and  Varese.  The  Commission  followed  this  situation  closely  and  where  necessary, 
has contacted the national authorities to remind them to fulfil their obligations as a 
host  country  to  the  institutions  and  to  provide  adequate  facilities  for  the  European 
Schools. Relief for the schools in Brussels and in Luxemburg is be expected in 2012 
with the opening of the two new schools.  

Overpopulated schools need to apply a restrictive enrolment policy and are in many 
cases unable to accept local children whose parents are not staff of EU institutions. In 
Brussels,  a  Central  Enrolment  Authority  is  in  charge  of  distributing  places  to  the 
schools. 

In 2010, the Board of Governors concluded that, due to further increase in the school 
population,  a  5th  school  was  needed  in  2015.  Negotiations  with  the  Belgian 
government  on  the  location  and  further  details  of  the  school  have  not  started  yet. 
Based  on  previous  experience,  the  annual  cost  for  a  school  of  2500  pupils  is 
estimated to be around € 28 million when full capacity is reached, after a phasing-in 
period of 5 years.  

4.5. 

Legal cases 

In 2009, a series of applications were made at the Court of Justice. These were one 
infringement  case  against  Belgium  concerning  the  contributions  for  furniture  and 
other  at  the  European  Schools  in  accordance  with  the  seat  agreement  (C-132/09 
Commission/Belgium). The second was a preliminary ruling request put forward by 
the  complaint  boards  set  up  by  the  European  School  Convention  concerning  the 
adjustment  of  pay  of  English  teachers  in  case  of  currency  fluctuations  (C-196/09 
Miles ea v. European Schools). The third case was the first request under Art. 26 of 
the European School Convention in a dispute between two parties of the Convention 

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regarding  the  interpretation  and  application  of  the  employment  conditions  for 
seconded teachers.  

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  first  two  cases,  C-132/09  and  C-196/09  the  Court 
considered that it lacked jurisdiction both for disputes arising from seat agreements 
in  the  context  of  infringement  procedures  as  well  as  for  preliminary  ruling  request 
brought  by  the  complaint  boards  set  up  by  the  European  School  Convention  as  the 
latter  were  not  jurisdictions  of  the  Member  States  within  the  meaning  of  Art.  267 
TFEU. In case C-196/09 the Court stated explicitly "it must be observed that while it 
is  possible  to  envisage  a  development,  along  the  lines  described  in  the  previous 
paragraph, of the system of judicial protection established by the European Schools’ 
Convention allowing for the complaint boards to make preliminary ruling requests, it 
is for the Member States to reform the system currently in force.  

Case  C-545/09  Commission  v  UK  is  still  pending.  Advocate  General  Mengozzi  in 
his opinion of 7.7.2011 concluded in favour of the Commission.  

Finally,  a  locally  recruited  teacher  in  Belgium  has  brought  a  legal  case  before  the 
national court concerning payment of holiday allowance before 2004. A judgment is 
expected  in  2011  on  the  extent  of  retroactivity  of  this  payment,  in  principle  before 
2004. The payment itself has already been judged as legitimate. The outcome of the 
ruling  on  the  extent  of  retroactivity  will  have  major  budgetary  consequences, 
especially as another 26 locally recruited teachers have made the same claims. The 
case is still proceeding.  

5. 

PEDAGOGICAL AND ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES  

5.1. 

Revision of the salary grid of seconded teachers/charges de cours 

The Staff Regulation of seconded teachers states that there is a degree of equivalence 
between  staff  of  the  institutions  and  seconded  teachers  in  the  European  School 
system. However, when the reform took place for staff of the EU institutions in 2004, 
the salary grid of seconded teachers was not adjusted accordingly. In December, the 
Board of Governors adopted a revision of the regulations to be implemented for the 
recruitment  of  new  teachers  for  the  school  year  2011/2012.  Teachers  already  in 
service  would  not  be  affected  by  these  changes.  Savings  would  be  made  gradually 
over  the  coming  9  years  and  yield  approximately  € 3.1  million  a  year  with  a  total 
saving of more than € 27 million by the end of the transition period. The same pay 
revision process was subsequently initiated for locally recruited teaching staff.  

5.2. 

The European baccalaureate reform 

As part of the process to open up the system, steps had to be taken to simplify the 
baccalaureate organisation and to cut costs, without jeopardising the baccalaureate’s 
quality.  Since  2009,  the  objectives  of  the  baccalaureate  reform  are  to  review  and 
revise  its  content  and  its  organisation,  so  that  it  meets  the  current  requirements  of 
universities  and/or  of  other  higher  education  institutions,  and  also  to  simplify  the 
process aimed at making it more widely available. 

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In  December  2010,  the  Board  of  Governors  approved  some  proposals  submitted  in 
2010 that are due to enter into force as of the 2012 baccalaureate. The Baccalaureate 
certificates  will  be  signed  by  a  central  authority,  the  European  Baccalaureate 
registration fee will increase and only candidates who have achieved a final mark of 
60 % or more will be deemed to have passed. 

The mandate of the ‘European Baccalaureate’ Working Group was extended for one 
year  since  various  pedagogical  and  organisational  issues  (such  as  the  number  and 
nature  of  written  and  oral  examinations,  double  marking,  dematerialised  correction 
of  the  Baccalaureate  written  examinations  and  the  introduction  of  a  cross-curricula 
project under the Baccalaureate examination as a response to the Lisbon Strategy, the 
compulsory  180  days of  schooling and  harmonisation of the assessment criteria for 
written and oral examinations) are still under discussion. The reform process is due 
to be completed for the 2014 Baccalaureate session. 

5.3. 

Actions for pupils with Special Education Needs (SEN)  

The  number  of  SEN  cases  has  increased  substantially  over  the  last  three  years.  In 
parallel,  SEN  expenditure  has  grown  over  the  same  period  by  27 %.  The  Board  of 
Governors  of  the  European  schools  discussed  this  increase  and  reached  the 
conclusion  that  ‘the  growth  in  the  SEN  budget  had  to  be  brought  under  control  by 
setting  strict  criteria  for  expenditure  on  pupils’  integration  into  teaching  and 
excluding other expenditure on therapeutic provision, which should not be defrayable 
by the schools.  

Some measures were taken in 2010. The inspectors produced a vademecum on SEN 
to harmonise SEN provisions and share good practice between schools. Schools now 
group  SEN  pupils  with  similar  types  of  needs  together  for  support  lessons  and  the 
principle of a tripartite agreement between the school, parents and therapists has been 
reached to organise therapy sessions on school premises paid for by the parents.  

The Commission fully supports these measures which will allow schools to continue 
their  efforts  to  integrate  children  with  special  education  needs  while  focusing  on 
pedagogical issues to help SEN children to progress and schools to make optimal use 
of their resources.  

5.4. 

Repeat rates 

A general discussion on the issue of repeat rates began in 2009 after the presentation 
of  statistical  analyses  of  the  number  and  percentage  of  repeat  rates,  by  year,  by 
language section and by school. After further study and an analysis carried out by the 
Secretary-General,  showing  the  highest  repeat  rates  in  the  4th  and  5th  year  of 
secondary and in connection with science subjects, the Board of Governors decided 
to  set  up  a  working  group  with  the  mandate  to  draw  up  precise  guidelines  for 
structural  measures  and  to  ensure  implementation  through  concrete  pedagogical 
initiatives.  

The working groups’ final report, presented in autumn 2010, contains 19 measures. 
Some  can  be  implemented  immediately,  some  require  more  in-depth  reflection  and 
others can be implemented locally.  

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5.5. 

Organisation of courses and classes 

The revision of the rules on the organisation of courses was one of the major points 
under discussion during the year. The challenge was to pool all the relevant decisions 
taken  in  the  past,  to  clarify  some  of  these  decisions  and  to  ensure  a  more  rational 
organisation of teaching matching a realistic adaptation of the available budget with 
the real needs of pupils. Since all stakeholders are aware that economies need to be 
made, it is now possible to adopt measures that help yield savings and also redesign 
and optimise teaching methods.  

Many  measures  were  discussed  in  2010,  such  as  a  reduction  in  the  hours  for  small 
groups or the use of the second language for teaching to form groups of children with 
different  languages.  The  rules  for  students  without  a  language  section  were  also 
clarified.  These  new,  clarified  rules  will  help  Directors  organise  the  options  and 
groups for the school year 2011/2012.  

6. 

FUTURE CHALLENGES 

One  of  the  major  challenges  for  the  years  to  come  will  be  to  maintain  the  high 
standard  of  education,  whilst  reorganising  and  modernising  the  structure  of  the 
Europeans Schools’ system and respecting the budgetary restrictions imposed by the 
difficult financial circumstances that are unlikely to improve in the short term.  

The  future  of  the  system  also  lies  in  opening  up  the  system,  in  encouraging  more 
national schools to apply for accreditation and in extending the European curriculum 
on a wider scale. This will be another area for future work.  

Furthermore,  the  European  Commission  is  concerned  by  the  difficulties  of  certain 
Member States to meet their obligations, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms 
of seconding teachers. The Commission strives to create the best possible conditions 
for  pupils  within  the  given  regulatory  framework  and  budget  allocated  by  the 
budgetary authorities. 

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