European schools blamed for fostering 'social separation'[fr][de] 

The European schools project, which today educates over 21,000 pupils in some fourteen schools across Europe, was launched by EU statesman Jean Monnet in 1953 to educate the children of the staff of the Union's institutions. 

The schools would ensure that attendees "become in mind Europeans, schooled and ready to complete and consolidate the work of their fathers before them, to bring into being a united and thriving Europe," Monnet said at the time. 

But Professor van Parijs, who directs the Hoover Chair of economic and social ethics at UCL, questions the contemporary wisdom of this goal. "It is not good for the offspring of the EU's bureaucracy to grow up in such a socially-homogeneous environment," he says. 

"Nor is it good for a city like Brussels to have part of its school population creamed off by what amounts to an invidious apartheid regime," the professor continues. "When you are admitted to an elite school by virtue of the status of your parents, it is hard not to develop a sense of superiority towards those who are not." 

Describing the attitude of Brussels inhabitants to European schools as "ambivalent", van Parijs stresses that their reputation for high-quality education, particularly regarding languages, means they are "frequently mentioned as a model to be emulated".

European schools are perceived as "one more privilege reserved for a fraction of the Brussels population far wealthier than the average Brussels resident," leading to resentment among foreigners, and not to mention Belgians, who are denied access. 

But the schools fail to offer technical or professional education, so "it follows that less academic children are routinely downloaded either onto the Belgian system or sent back to relatives or boarding schools in their home countries," he complains. 

Nevertheless, Van Parijs is quick to stress his children's "fantastic experience" attending European school, citing their fluent command of "three or four languages" and close friends of various nationalities among the benefits of this. 

The professor estimates that there are around 80,000 people working in the international community in Brussels, a figure which is close to EurActiv's own estimates that there are around 100,000 'full-time EU actors' operating in the Belgian capital. According to Van Parijs, the Brussels-based EU institutions employ around 40,000 people, and employees of other international organisations and diplomats make up another 15,000, complemented by around 15,000 lobbyists (EurActiv 10/06/08). 

There are no data available on the type of schools to which these people send their children, he complains. "It would help public debate […] if the EU institutions could provide reliable estimates."

Finally, Van Parijs suggests that European school-style curricula could be "licensed" to willing public or private schools in Belgium to benefit a wider variety of pupils. "Experiments of this sort must get off the ground," he says, stressing that "they must start with kindergarten and primary school". 

European school curricula "must have the potential to be gradually generalised [...] to the whole of the Brussels school population," he adds, concluding: "Where there's a will there's a way."   

To read the interview in full, please click here.