After the Belgian Court of Arbitration rejected the complaint of French students on Belgian foreign student quota, students have now complained to the Commission about this decree, saying it violates the EU principles on right to student mobility, in particular the Articles 149 and 150 of the Treaty.
The decree limiting the number of foreign students to 30% in a number of subjects, such as veterinary medicine and physiotherapy, was tabled by the minister for higher education for the French-speaking community of Belgium, Marie-Dominique Simonet in February 2006. It was immediately denounced by the Federation of French-speaking students in Belgium (Fédération des étudiants francophones - FEF) as a violation of "the principle of student mobility". Once the decree was passed on 16 June 2006, 45 student complained, in August 2006, to the Belgian Court of Arbitration. The students denounced the decree as "discriminatory, without proper justification and disproportionate as to its objective".
So far, foreign students have, in most cases, had free access to studies in Belgian institutions. The new law, entering into force on 1 September 2006, limits in practice mainly the number of French students, who currently account for 86% of those in veterinary medicine, for example. The government of the French-speaking community of Belgium argues that imposing quotas is necessary to preserve the educational system and to avoid a lack of Belgian specialists in some professions.
