BOLETÍN 1841: INTRODUCTION FOR NEW CPDs

Published since 1964

COMITE DU PERSONNEL STAFF COMMITTEE PERSONALRAT

ECOLES EUROPEENNES EUROPEAN SCHOOLS EUROPÄISCHE SCHULEN

Bulletin No 1841

Introduction for new colleagues

The European Schools are an intergovernmental organisation, regulated by a treaty known as the Convention.  Under the terms of this treaty, decisions are taken by the Board of Governors (BoG) made up of representatives of the 27 Member States, a representative of the European Commission, a representative of the European Patent Office, a representative of the staff and a parents’ representative. Parents and staff have voting rights on pedagogical issues without financial consequences.

In November 2006 a major reform of the whole European School system was decided upon by the Council of Ministers in response to EU enlargement and an ever-increasing number of EU agencies in the various Member States. It was decided to “open up” the ES system and make the European Baccalaureate more widely available.  “European Schooling” will be available in 3 types of school:

Type 1 (the “classical” European Schools)

Type 2 (national schools with some category I pupils, usually at the site of a European agency such as in Parma) with the European Commission contributing to the budget of the schools. There are currently 7 Type 2 schools that have been accredited by the BoG (Parma, Dunshaughlin, Strasbourg, Helsinki, Manosque, Heraklion, the Hague) with two further schools at present applying for accreditation (Copenhagen, Tallinn), Pupils in Parma have sat the Baccalaureate every year since 2009.

Type 3 (national schools offering European Schooling but with no EU funding). The first type 3 is in Bad Vilbel in Germany (land of Hessen), which opened in September 2012.

In April 2009 the Board of Governors decided upon a fundamental reform of the governance of the European Schools, giving individual schools a degree of autonomy and delegating some decision taking powers to two Committees, these being:

The Joint Teaching Committee (JTC) This body has the power to decide pedagogical questions and will deliver an opinion on a list of others to the Budgetary Committee and/or the Board of Governors.

The Budgetary Committee (BC) decides budgetary questions within the framework of the overall budget approved by the BoG and will also decide pedagogical questions with financial implications, or express a decision for the BoG if a decision is not possible in the BC. On a variety of other issues it will express an opinion to the BoG.

A “Troika”, made up of the current, previous and next chairs of the BoG, was set up several years ago to expedite the work of the BoG and this body was retained after the reform. In 2012-2013 it is chaired by Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency of the Board of Governors.

At the school level greater autonomy was granted to the Administrative Boards and a School Advisory Council (SAC) for each school was set up. This body is made up of representatives of the various stakeholders in the school and, as the name suggests, has a purely advisory role with no power of decision. 

The Staff Committee (CdP) is represented in both the JTC (with the right to vote) and the BC (without a vote). It puts forward the views of the teaching staff, defends the interests of colleagues and keeps colleagues informed by means of this Information Bulletin, which has been published regularly since 1964.  Together with the Staff Committee for the Administrative and Ancillary Staff (AAS) it designates one its number to represent the staff at the BoG. Its members are also members of the Administrative Board of the school they represent and, following a decision by the Complaints Board reversing an earlier decision by the BoG, the teachers’ representatives have two votes on this body.

The organisation and running of the ES system is managed by the Office of the Secretary General (OSGEE) which is directed by the Secretary General (Mr Kari KIVINEN) and his deputy (Mr Giancarlo Marcheggiano). The Secretary General is assisted notably Mr Albert KUHN (responsible for the budget) Mr  J VILLATORO (Financial Controller) and Mr A BECKMANN (Human Resources).

The budget of the Schools comes from 3 different sources: the contribution of the Member States in the form of the national salaries of seconded teachers, school fees for category 2 and category 3 pupils, a subsidy from the European Commission.

The burning issues at the start of the new school year are the EU contribution to the budget of the schools and the reform of the Organisation of Secondary Studies

The situation is Brussels is much improved with the opening of the Laeken site in Setember 2012, but it is expected that this will be full by 2016 and the idea of a fifth school is already in the pipeline ( at at meeting with the CdP on 10 September the SG also floated the idea of a  6^th and 7^th school). The opening of the fourth school has done little to alleviate the overcrowding in the other existing schools….ourth school moves to its permanent premises in September 2012 and a fifth. The distribution of the language sections across the schools is a highly sensitive issue. The Central Enrolment Authority is charged with assigning places in the schools and the number of appeals against its decisions increases year by year. the enrolment policy in the Brussels school.

According to the Convention, the EU contribution to the budget of the schools is a balancing subsidy covering the difference between the approved budget and all other sources of revenue. In recent years the European Commission has announced the level of its contribution at the start of the budgetary process, which has lead to very difficult debates before a budget could finally be adopted. Prior to adopting the 2012 budget significant changes in the rules for creating courses were adopted by the BoG at the behest of the Commission. The impact of these decisions has now become apparent in the schools. The Commission’s contribution to the draft 2013 budget will increase by 5.5% and it is seeking further “rationalisation” in the organisation of religion and optional courses…

A report on the European Schools was presented to the European Parliament in 2011. One of its proposals was that all “non-fundamental” (?) subjects should be taught in one of the three working languages, the author suggesting that such a change would lead to “substantial economies”. This led the BoG to decide in April 2012 to set up a Working Group “Organisation of Studies in the Secondary Cycle” for the sake of rationalisation of studies, with particular reference to options. The first meeting of this WG will be held on 24 September. From the debate at the BoG it is clear that the Commission (and others) are looking for substantial economies…

The CdP will keep colleagues informed on progress and decisions taken on these and other issues by means of the Information Bulletins. Regular reading of these is strongly recommended!  

 Category I = children of EU officials employed by the EU agency

 The CAVADA report