European Schools
The European Schools is an intergovernmental organisation, which has established, financed, and administered a small group of multilingual international schools, bearing the title "European School", which exist primarily to offer an education to the children of European Union staff from the maternel to the higher years of education; offers accreditation to other schools, bearing the title "Accredited European School", under national jurisdiction within EU member states to provide its curriculum; and oversees the provision of the secondary school leaving diploma, the European Baccalaureate.
The organisation was first established as the "European School" in 1957 by the Inner Six states, which transformed into an intergovernmental venture what was formerly a private initiative, started in 1953, by staff of the institutions of the European Coal and Steel Community to provide schooling for their children. It was spurred on by one of the architects of post-war European integration and reconciliation, Jean Monnet. In the following decades, the organisation set up other schools mainly near the locations of other European Communities — later, European Union — institutions and bodies. To reflect this, in 2002, the organisation was officially renamed the "European Schools" following the entry into force of its current legal basis, which as of 2013 — following the accession of Croatia — includes all 27 EU member states, the European Union, and the European Atomic Energy Community as contracting parties.
Since 2005, the European Schools has offered accreditation to other schools under national jurisdiction to offer its curriculum and the European Baccalaureate.
The organisation's executive is the Board of Governors, composed of the ministers of education of the member state contracting parties, a representative of the European Commission on behalf of the EU and Euratom, a representative of the Staff Committee, a representative of the federated Parents' Associations and a representative of the federated Pupils' Committees.
As of September 2017, the organisation is directly responsible for thirteen schools located in six EU member states, and as of September 2021, has accredited twenty schools located in thirteen EU countries, with a further five schools engaged in the accreditation process.
History
Foundation: An intergovernmental enterprise
Following the establishment of the institutions of the European Coal and Steel Community in Luxembourg, in 1952, it became apparent that it was necessary to provide an education to the children of the officials of those institutions in their mother tongues. The lack of such provisions posed challenges in building an administration that reflected the diverse makeup of the ECSC's six founding member states, discouraging potential employees who heralded from outside the jurisdiction in which the institutions were based from relocating with their families. In 1953, employees of the ECSC established an association, financed by the High Authority of the ECSC, for the purpose of founding a school in Luxembourg providing nursery and primary education to the children of the institutions' officials. The school begun to operate on 4 October 1953, with teachers recruited and paid by the association.However, by the spring of 1954, it was apparent that the solution was inadequate, with the school unable to provide a secondary education to its enrolees. The President of the High Authority of the ECSC, Jean Monnet, invited representatives of the education ministers of the six founding member states of the ECSC to Luxembourg for discussions on a school with intergovernmental status. The member state representatives transformed themselves into a Board of Governors, who would oversee the establishment of such a school. It was agreed that teaching staff would be seconded from the member states, who would continue to pay their salary, and that salaries would be harmonised by means of an additional supplement. On 12 October 1954, the first two years of the secondary school began to operate.
On 12 April 1957, the governments of the six ECSC member states signed the Statute of the European School, which took the form of an international treaty. Following ratification, the agreement entered into force on 22 February 1960. Under Article 6 of the Statute, the European School was to have the status of a public institution in the law of each of the contracting parties and was to have legal personality to the extent requisite for the attainment of its objectives. The organs of the school were to be a Board of Governors, which would have executive authority over the School, a Boards of Inspectors, an Administrative Board and a Head teacher. Article 8 provided that the Board of Governors of the European School was to consist of the "Minister or Ministers of each contracting party whose responsibilities include national education and/or external cultural relations", with the Board able to confer a position to a representative of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, as per Article 27.
The spread of the European Schools
Following the foundation of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community in 1957 and the establishment of the school in Luxembourg, other European Schools were set up in Brussels and then in Mol, Belgium in 1958, in Varese, Italy in 1960, Karlsruhe, Germany in 1962, in Bergen, the Netherlands in 1963, and a second school in Brussels in 1974. In order to facilitate the setting-up of those new schools and to provide them with a legal basis, the governments of the member states signed on 13 April 1962 in Luxembourg a Protocol on the setting-up of European Schools with reference to the 1957 Statute of the European School.In 1967, the institutions of the EEC, ECSC and Euratom were merged to form the European Communities. Consequently, the three organisations were represented on the Board of Governors by the European Commission of the European Communities, the successor institution to the High Authority of the ECSC. Taking advantage of the powers conferred to it by the 1957 Statute, the Board of Governors signed an agreement with the European Patent Organisation - a separate intergovernmental organisation - in December 1975 allowing for the creation, in 1977, of a European School in Munich, Germany for the education and instruction together of children of its staff. In 1973, the first enlargement of the European Communities saw the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland join, who all likewise acceded to the 1957 Statute. In 1978, a European School was established at Culham, UK in order to serve the children of the staff posted to the Joint European Torus Joint Undertaking, supervised by Euratom, for the development of a common nuclear fusion programme. By 1986, following the enlargement of the European Communities to include Greece, Spain and Portugal and their ratification of the Statute, the Schools were obliged to provide an education to the students of officials originating from the 12 EC member states. Finland acceded to the Statute in 1995 after its accession to the European Union.
Coping with EU enlargement
Pursuant to the incorporation of the European Communities into the European Union in 1993, and envisioning the enlargement in membership of the EU following the end of the Cold War, it was decided that the legal and organisational framework of the Schools needed an overhaul. On 21 June 1994 the Convention Defining the Statute of the European Schools, which repealed and replaced the 1957 Statute of the European School and its accompanying 1962 Protocol, was signed by all 12 then EU member states. On 1 October 2002 it came into effect, following ratification by all signatories. Following the subsequent enlargements of the EU, the acceding states have also acceded to the 1994 Convention, which, as of September 2021, includes amongst its contracting parties all 27 EU member states, as well as the EU itself, and Euratom.Brexit
As part of the UK's withdrawal from the EU, better known as Brexit, the UK government notified its intention to withdraw from the Convention Defining the Statute of the European Schools. The UK's formal exit from the European Schools occurred at 00:00 CET on 31 August 2021, which represented, as per the terms established within the Withdrawal Agreement, the end of the school year that was ongoing at the end of the transition period. However, the UK has committed itself in the Withdrawal Agreement to maintain the legal rights, as laid out in Article 5 of the convention, of any former pupils, as well as those who are enrolled in a cycle of secondary studies in a European School before 31 August 2021 and acquire a European Baccalaureate after that date.Brexit posed substantial challenges for the Europa School UK — an Oxfordshire based Accredited European School formed by stakeholders of the former European School, Culham, as accredited status may only be awarded to schools within an EU member state. As a result, the Europa School's accredited status expired on 31 August 2021, with the school no longer able to offer the European Baccalaureate.