Landesamt für Ausbildungsförderung Nordrhein-Westfalen v Lubor Gaal.
Date: 1995-05-04
19 It should be noted at the outset that, according to the case-law of the Court, Article 12 refers not only to the rules relating to admission itself, but also to general measures intended to facilitate educational attendance. In that regard, the Court considered inter alia that the status of child of a Community worker implies, in particular, that it is recognized in Community law that such children must be eligible for study assistance from the State in order to make it possible for them to achieve integration in the society of the host country. This means, according to the Court, that the children of Community workers are entitled to assistance granted to cover the costs of students' education and maintenance under the same conditions as apply to the host country' s own nationals (see Case C-308/89 Di Leo v Land Berlin [1990] ECR I-4185, paragraph 9).
21 The German Government submitted that the close relationship between Article 10 and 11 of the Regulation, on the one hand, and Article 12, on the other, implies that Article 12 only grants that right to children who meet the conditions set out in Articles 10 and 11.
22 That view cannot be accepted.
23 In the first place, Article 12 contains no reference to Article 10 or Article 11 of the Regulation.
24 Secondly, as the Court has consistently held (see Joined Cases 389/87 and 390/87 Echternach and Moritz v Netherlands Minister for Education and Science [1989] ECR 723, paragraphs 29 and 30), the principle of equal treatment set out in Article 12 of the Regulation extends to all forms of education, whether vocational or general, including university courses. The same principle requires that the child of a migrant worker be able to continue his studies in order to complete his education successfully.
25 Consequently, Article 12 of the Regulation also encompasses financial assistance for those students who are already at an advanced stage in their education, even if they are already 21 years of age or older and are no longer dependants of their parents. Accordingly, to make the application of Article 12 subject to an age-limit or to the status of dependent child would conflict not only with the letter of that provision, but also with its spirit.
27 On that point, it need only be observed that, as the Court has already held (see Case 197/86 Brown v Secretary of State for Scotland [1988] ECR 3205, paragraph 30), Article 12 of the Regulation must be interpreted as granting rights only to a child who has lived with his parents or either one of them in a Member State at a time when at least one of his parents resided there as a worker.
30 As is clear from paragraphs 34 and 35 of the judgment in Echternach and Moritz, and from paragraphs 14 and 15 of the judgment in Di Leo, the reference to Article 7(2) of the Regulation, as a factor in interpreting Article 12, was not made for the purpose of laying down other requirements in addition to those set out in Article 12. The intention was rather to emphasize that the benefits granted under Article 7(2) to migrant workers themselves could not be denied to the children of those workers when they seek to rely on the right enshrined in Article 12 of the Regulation.