The purpose of the European Schools is to provide nursery, primary and secondary age pupils with a multilingual and multicultural education.
Pupils are admitted to the nursery school at the beginning of the school year in September of the calendar year in which the child reaches four years of age.
Pupils are admitted to primary year 1 at the beginning of the school year in September of the calendar year in which the child reaches six years of age.
In principle, no child may be admitted to the school if he/she is two years (three years for secondary years 4-6) older than the normal age resulting from application of the above provisions to his/her particular case.
Pupils with special educational needs: cases are dealt with in accordance with the decisions of the Board of Governors 'Policy on the Provision of
Educational Support in the European Schools'.
Breakdown of pupils into three categories
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Category I: Pupils who have to be admitted by the European Schools. These pupils are exempt from school fees.
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Category II: Pupils covered by individual agreements or decisions, each entailing specific rights and obligations for the pupils concerned, particularly as regards school fees.
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Category III: Pupils who do not belong to categories I & II. These pupils would be admitted to the European Schools in so far as places are available, in accordance with an order of priority listed here. The ordinary school fees fixed by the Board of Governors would be payable for these pupils.
Which category does your child belong to?
Category I
The children of staff in the service of the Community institutions and of the organisations listed below [
1] employed directly and continuously for a minimum period of one year.
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Members of the Community Institutions
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Officials covered by the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities [*]
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Staff covered by the Conditions of Employment of other Servants of the European Communities [*]
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Persons with a directly binding contract of employment, governed by private law, with the Community Institutions
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National experts seconded to Community Institutions
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Employees of the E.I.B.
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Staff of any Community organisation set up by an act of the Community Institutions and staff in the service of other organisations recognised by the Board of Governors
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UKAEA staff seconded to the JET project at Culham
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Staff of the European Investment Fund's Secretariat
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National officials attached to the Permanent Representations of the Member States to the European Communities, with the exception of staff recruited locally
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Teaching staff and the administrative and ancillary staff of the European Schools and of the Office of the Representative of the Board of Governors
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Staff covered by the Service Regulations of the EPO in Munich.
The special conditions governing the admission of the children referred to in points 1 to 11 to the Munich School and those for the children referred to in point 12 to the other Schools are determined by the Board of Governors.
[*] renamed, after the adoption of this list by the Board of Governors, in "Staff Regulations" (Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 723/2004 of 22 March 2004 amending the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities and the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities)
Category II
Pupils covered by individual agreements or decisions, each entailing specific rights and obligations for the pupils concerned.
Category III
The order in which the following pupils are listed is the
order of priority for admission purposes:
(a) Children of national officials seconded to diplomatic representations, to the NATO Representation and to the Consulates of the Member States (with the exception of locally recruited staff);
(b) Children of members of the diplomatic service returning to their home country in which a European School is situated and where they can only be integrated into the national education system in place with great difficulty on account of the latter’s special features; [
2]
(c) Children of national officials of the Permanent Representations of non-member States to the European Communities (with the exception of locally recruited staff);
(d) Children of staff with diplomatic status, posted in Brussels or in Luxembourg, belonging to non-member countries which signed the Lomé Convention;
(e) Other officials posted abroad, in all the Schools;
(f) Others: priority will be given to pupils whose mother tongue or language of previous education is not a language of tuition in the national education system. [
3]
Please note the admission regulations for category III pupils
a) Decisions on admissions in category III, as allowed by the regulations, are taken by the Director, in accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of the General Rules of the European Schools.
In admitting such pupils, the Director must ensure that enough places are kept free in each class to allow a reasonable number of children coming into categories I and II to be admitted during the year without this leading to a class having to be divided.
b) No category III pupil may be admitted to a class which already has 24 pupils at the beginning of the school year.
Admission of children of assistants of Members of the European Parliament [4]
1. Admission of the children of
accredited parliamentary assistantsThe Board of Governors confirmed that the children of accredited parliamentary assistants come under Category I for purposes of access to the European Schools.
2. Admission of the children of
local assistants of Members of the European Parliament
The Board of Governors decided that the children of local assistants of Members of the European Parliament are classified in Category III for purposes of admission to the European Schools.
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[1] Decisions of the Board of Governors, 24 October 1989, page 2 and 27-28 October 1992, page 3
[2] Decisions of the Board of Governors, 15-16 October 1996, page 5
[3] Decisions of the Board of Governors, 25-27 April 2005, page 6
[4] Written Procedure 2009/02: Change of Status of Parliamentary Assistants – document 2009-D-171-en-1
