Brussels, 25/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission decided to send letters of formal notice to Austria and Belgium, regarding restrictions on access to their higher education system for holders of secondary education diplomas from other member states. The two countries now have two months in which to respond. In a press release, the Commission acknowledged the “sensitivity” of the issue of access to universities in some member states. “While pursuing its role as guardian of the Treaties, it remains open to continue the dialogue with both the Austrian and Belgian authorities,” it said.
Austria. In the case of Austria, this is a follow-up to the judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in July 2005. Austrian legislation had required that the holders of secondary education diplomas from other member states had to prove that they had met the conditions governing access to the higher education system in their home country (for example passing the university entrance exams). The Court held that Austria's legislation discriminated against holders of secondary education diplomas awarded in another member state, since they could not gain access to Austrian higher education under the same conditions as holders of the equivalent Austrian diploma (Articles 12, 149, 150 of the EC Treaty). As regards a possible justification of such discrimination, the ECJ stated in particular that Austria "failed to demonstrate that … the existence of the Austrian education system in general and the safeguarding of the homogeneity of higher education in particular would be jeopardized”, in the absence of restrictive measures, by the number of students coming from other countries, mainly Germany. Following the Court's decision, Austria provisionally amended the relevant Universities Act twice, firstly in July 2005 to abide by the Court's decision then, in June 2006, to re-establish restrictions on access. The latter amendment specified that, for some studies, 75 % of the study places could be reserved to applicants with a secondary education diploma acquired in Austria (and 20 % to other EU students, the remaining 5% to third-countries students). A subsequent decree stipulated that these quotas were to be introduced for medicine and dental studies till the end of 2007. The Commission's letter of formal notice of 24 January, based on Article 228 of the Treaties (i.e. non-application of an ECJ ruling), indicated that the Commission, having analysed the justifications put forward so far by the Austrian authorities, considered that, at this stage, Austria had not complied with the ECJ's ruling and accordingly invited Austria to submit its observations.
Belgium. Belgium, more precisely the Parliament of the Communauté française, in June 2006, adopted a decree, by which it introduced, for a certain number of medical studies, a quota of 70 % of students normally resident in Belgium. With the letter of formal notice of 24 January, the European Commission indicated - for reasons similar to those in the Austrian case - that this system discriminated against EU nationals not residing in Belgium, and that Belgium had failed to justify the introduction of this system. The ECJ had already delivered a judgment against a former discriminatory system applied by Belgium. In the meantime, in 2003, Belgium had actually abolished any discriminatory effect in its legislation prior to the Court's decision, and the infringement procedure was closed by the Commission.
The new decree adopted in 2006 by the Communauté française, and which came into effect for the academic year 2006-2007, is therefore considered to be a new infringement. (hb)