Ruane Caught Out!
22 January 2008
RUANE CAUGHT OUT!
STATEMENT BY TRADITIONAL UNIONIST MEP JIM ALLISTER
"The Education Minister before Christmas asserted that her intent to develop an "open house" policy on school enrolment towards
Knowing this to be nonsense I tabled a Question to the EU Commission and now have written confirmation that neither EU legislation nor jurisprudence impacts on this matter at all.
I asked the Commission:-
Can the Commission confirm that there are no EU policies equality rules which prevent a school in its admission policy from giving priority to admitting children from the
The answer clearly states that policy pertaining to general school education is a member state competence and only in circumstances where a national of one country moves to another can they demand the same treatment as indigenous nationals. In "grannying" the parents and child remain living outside the jurisdiction, so none of the rights arising under Article 18 of the EC Treaty are relevant.
The Commission's answer is as follows:-
E-6088/07EN
Answer given by Mr Figel'
on behalf of the Commission
(18.1.2008)
Although, according to Article 149 and 150 of the EC Treaty, the organisation of education systems falls under national competence, according to the settled case-law of the Court of Justice, the conditions of access to vocational training fall within the scope of the Treaty. The cases of Gravier v. City of
However, since judgments were given in the above-mentioned cases, the concept of citizenship of the EU has been introduced into the Treaty. Union Citizenship is intended to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States, enabling those who find themselves in the same situation to receive the same treatment in law irrespective of their nationality, subject to such exceptions as are expressly provided for (Cases Grzelczyk (C?/99) and Garcia Avello (C?/02)). According to settled case-law, a citizen of the European Union lawfully resident in the territory of the host Member State can rely on Article 12 of the EC Treaty in all situations which fall within the scope ratione materiae of Community law (Cases Martínez Sala (C��/96) and Grzelczyk).
The situations falling within the scope of EU law include those involving the exercise of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Treaty and those involving the exercise of the right to move and reside within the territory of the Member States, as conferred by Article 18 of the EC Treaty (Cases Bickel and Franz (C-274/96), Grzelczyk, and Garcia Avello).
As is apparent from Case C?/98 D’Hoop, a national of a Member State who goes to another Member State and pursues secondary education there exercises the freedom to move guaranteed by Article 18 of the EC Treaty.
It follows that Member States cannot impair the exercise of this freedom except in so far as a restriction is justified on grounds of general interest.
So why is Minister Ruane trying to hide behind non-existent EU requirements in a bogus attempt to provide a figleaf to cover her brazenly republican agenda of liquidating the border and giving equality of treatment to foreigners to the detriment of locals? Since there is no EU justification for what she is doing it is no surprise that I have been waiting 6 weeks for her Department to answer my challenge as to what EU legislation she is talking about. There is none and they must know that!
Sadly, this Minister is so dedicated to mangling our education system that she will seemingly go to any lengths to add destruction to the mix."
