Relating To Certain Aspects Of Laws On Use Of Languages In Education In Belgium (Meri

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   1. The Applicants observe that according to Section 5, first paragraph, of the Act of 30th July 1963, applicable in the Greater Brussels area, "classes in which the medium of instruction is French and classes in which the medium of instruction is Dutch may not be placed under a single direction (...)". This provision does not apply to the Dutch-speaking region, but the circulars of 9th and 29th August 1963 lead, according to the better view, to the same results: they require the establishments concerned to close down their French classes, or to split into two. At Antwerp, the Institut St Joseph des Filles de Marie and the Collège Marie-José (amalgamated with the High School) have chosen the second solution. They have erected a wall between the two sections. In the opinion of the Applicants, the construction of such a wall "hurts the feelings of the child who is thus liable to develop a complex" and to be the victim of "a humiliating segregation". The establishments concerned are moreover doomed sooner or later to close down as a result of the cumulative effect of legal measures and other pressures; already several of them have ceased all instruction in French after the entry into force of the 1963 legislation.
   2. Furthermore the Applicants insist on the necessity of distinguishing between the refusal to grant subsidies and their withdrawal, the latter possessing a "punitive character".
      1. 3. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission
      <LI value=11>According to the Belgian Government, the withdrawal of subsidies violates neither Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) nor Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, which do not oblige the States to provide subsidies and do not safeguard the cultural or linguistic preferences of parents; nor does it infringe Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention which has "legal effects" only when the Convention "imposes" on States "a certain action" or authorises them to "limit the exercise of the rights and the enjoyment of the freedoms guaranteed" which is not so in the present case (cf. supra). To refrain from providing parallel teaching "entirely or partially in a language other than that of the region", is a simple "condition of the privileges which are represented by subsidies", privileges the withdrawal of which "has nothing to do with the subject matter of the Convention and Protocol".
      The other arguments of the Belgian Government are of a subsidiary character; they apply only in the event of the Court's adopting the wide interpretation given to Article 14 (art. 14) by the majority of the Commission. The Belgian Government finds it "difficult to detect any difference between privileges granted to the Dutch-speaking population and disadvantages for the French-speaking population", and consequently also between the refusal to grant subsidies and their withdrawal. In endeavouring to show that this last measure does not constitute a discrimination, it emphasises that "one of the guiding principles of Belgian legislation" consists in subjecting "subsidised private education" to the "same rules" as "official education" and in preventing "evasion of the law". The "Dutch-language schools which created French-language sections" frequently resorted to "expedients, the smartness of which was sometimes very questionable, to enable the French-language sections to benefit, despite everything, from the grants" allotted "for Dutch-language education". According to the Belgian Government, the heads of these establishments moreover managed "in nearly all cases" to "create a French-language section solely because they were in charge of subsidised and recognised Dutch-language schools". Consequently, the French language sections were generally not "viable except as annexes of Dutch-language schools", and it was possible to have "serious reservations as to the quality of the education" they provided. Certain establishments had stopped all French-language education since 1963-1964. "A few French-language sections, large enough to be independently viable", had however "survived by converting themselves into independent schools". Moreover, the Convention, less generous in this respect than the Belgian Constitution, does not enshrine the right to follow "a linguistic policy not in conformity with that of the national authorities", and the linguistic policy of the Belgian State is pursuing a "legitimate objective" the evaluation of which is not within the competence of the Commission and the Court; this objective is to ensure the formation of Dutch-speaking élites in Flanders by struggling against the "phenomenon of francisation" which once existed there.
   3. The Commission confirmed before the Court the opinion expressed by the majority of its members on this question in its Report. In its view the withdrawal of subsidies - like the refusal to grant them - violates neither Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention nor the second sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2), whether these provisions are read "in isolation" or "in conjunction" with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2, art. 14+8) of the Convention; nor does it infringe the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol as long as this is not taken in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) (cf. supra).
      On the other hand the Commission is of the opinion, by seven votes to five, that this measure does not comply with the right to education as it is safeguarded by the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the Convention. It considers, in effect, on the basis of its interpretation of Article 14 (art. 14) mentioned above ("scope" and "concept of discrimination": cf. supra), that the withdrawal of subsidies amounts to an "unjustifiable hardship": going far beyond the encouragement, "in either region, of the local language and culture", it tends to "prevent the spread, if not the maintenance even, in one region, of the language and culture of the other region" and to "assimilate minorities into the language of their surroundings". In this connection, the Commission states that the withdrawal of subsidies "is entailed even in the maintenance of nursery classes which do not conform to the legislation in issue"; that it applies to schools which "from the technical and academic points of view" meet "in full the requirements of the law" since they benefited from subsidies before the entry into force of the 1963 Acts; that it in actual fact concerns only establishments situated in Flanders as there do not seem to be comparable establishments situated in Wallonia; that it "bears hard on French-speaking children, without giving any advantage to Dutch-speaking children" and that it "takes the form of a punitive sanction whose victims, incidentally, are not the educational establishments affected but the French-speaking inhabitants" of the Dutch-speaking region and more precisely, in this case, "all the signatories of the six Applications" referred to the Court.
      The Commission further emphasises that the education in French in question "met a need": for it does not believe that private schools would arrange "costly classes without subsidies if the number of pupils were not adequate". As regards "evasions of the law", the Commission believes that the Schools Inspectorate could easily "unmask" them and on discovering them "impose the penalty of withdrawal of the grant". But this is not what is done. "The mere fact that a school provides unsubsidised partial or complete education in French, automatically, by a (...) guillotine effect, entails the withdrawal of all grants".
      Five members of the Commission however find no violation on the point in question; the Commission draws the attention of the Court to their dissenting opinions.
      
      4. Decision of the Court
   4. The situation with which the second question is concerned is bound up with that dealt with in the first. The legal provisions mentioned in the first render impossible, in the Dutch unilingual region, the establishment or subsidising by the State of schools which conduct education in French. The legal and administrative measures to which the second question relates, merely supplement them: they tend to prevent the operating of "mixed language" schools which, in a unilingual region - in this case, the Dutch unilingual region - provide, in the form of non-subsidised classes and in addition to instruction given in the language of the region, full or partial instruction in another language. What is in issue, therefore, is a whole series of provisions with a common aim, namely, the protection of the linguistic homogeneity of the region.
      The Court's reply to the second question is the same as that already given to the first.
      Neither Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2), nor Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention are violated by the provisions in dispute.
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As the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) taken by itself leaves intact the freedom of States to subsidise private schools or to refrain from so doing, the withdrawal of subsidies from schools which do not satisfy the requirements to which the State subjects the grant of such subsidies - in this case the condition that teaching should be conducted exclusively in accordance with the linguistic legislation - does not come within the scope of this Article (P1-2).
There is likewise no breach of Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention for the same reasons as were explained above in the reply to the first question.
Nor does the Court find any violation of Article 2 of the Protocol and of Article 8 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2, art. 14+8).
The Court has already stated, with respect to the first question, that measures which tend to ensure that, in the unilingual regions, the teaching language of official or subsidised schools should be exclusively that of the region, are not arbitrary and therefore not discriminatory. These measures do not prevent French-speaking parents who wish to provide a French education for their children from doing so, either in non-subsidised private schools, or in schools in the French unilingual region or in the Greater Brussels District.
The legislation to which the first question has reference does not permit the establishment or functioning, in the Dutch unilingual region, of official or subsidised schools providing education in French. The legislation with which the second question is concerned goes further; by the total withdrawal of subsidies, it makes it impossible, in the same region, for teaching in French to be conducted as a secondary activity by a subsidised Dutch-language school.
The Commission has emphasised that such a withdrawal "bears hard on the French-speaking children" in Flanders, particularly since the majority of the schools in Flanders which provided education in French were "mixed-language" schools.
However, while recognising that this is a harsh measure, the Court cannot share the Commission's opinion that such a hardship is forbidden by a joint reading of the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention. This opinion could be accepted only if the "hardship" were to amount to a distinction in treatment of an arbitrary and therefore discriminatory nature. The Court has, however, found that, whatever their severity, the legal or administrative provisions touched on by the first question are based on objective criteria. The same is true of the measure here in question. Its purpose is to avoid the possibility of education which the State does not wish to subsidise - for reasons which are completely compatible with Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention - benefiting, in some way or another, from subsidies destined for education which is in conformity with the linguistic legislation. This purpose is plausible in itself and it is not for the Court to determine whether it is possible to realise it in another way.
For their part, the effects of this measure are solely of such a kind as to prevent subsidised and unsubsidised education being conducted in the same school. They in no way affect the freedom to organise, independently of subsidised education, private French-language education.
Hence the legal and administrative measures in question create no impediment to the exercise of the individual rights enshrined in the Convention with the result that the necessary balance between the collective interest of society and the individual rights guaranteed is respected. Consequently, they are not incompatible with the provisions of Article 2 of the Protocol and of Article 8 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2, art. 14+8).

C. As to the third question

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   <LI value=14>The third question concerns the issue of whether or not in the case of the Applicants there is a violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and of Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention or of any of those Articles, "with regard to the special status conferred by Section 7, third paragraph, of the Act of 2nd August 1963, on six communes, of which Kraainem is one, on the periphery of Brussels", this being without prejudice to the conditions of residence referred to in the fifth question.
   
   
   1. The Facts
   <LI value=15>Situated some kilometres to the east of Brussels, the commune of Kraainem belonged, under the system created by the 1932 Acts, to the unilingual Flemish region. Following "a considerable migration of French-speaking persons from Brussels" to the "more airy periphery" and as a result of a "spontaneous phenomenon (...) of francisation", Kraainem gradually lost its character of a purely Flemish locality. The last linguistic census which took place in 1947, showed that 47 % of the population were French-speaking. According to the signatories of Application No. 1677/62, an "indirect linguistic census" was taken in Kraainem on 31 December 1961 despite the Act of 24th July 1961: the commune administration, having distributed bilingual forms to the population, ascertained that 61.18 % of the population was French-speaking, and today it is 65 %. On the other hand, the Belgian Government is of the opinion that these "so called statistics", "compiled in circumstances far removed from objective scientific research", should be treated "with the greatest reserve".
   Be this as it may, Kraainem at present forms part neither of "the Dutch-language region", nor "the French-language region", nor yet again of "the Greater Brussels area", the respective composition of which is fixed by Sections 3, 4 and 6 of the Act of 2nd August 1963. Under Section 7 (1) of the same Act, it forms, together with five other communes in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital of the Kingdom, namely, Drogenbos, Linkebeek, Rhode-St. Genèse, Wemmel and Wezembeek-Oppem, "a separate administrative district" with its own "special status". This status is essentially defined in paragraphs 2 and 3 of Section 7. Paragraph 2 in substance provides that the six communes concerned shall enjoy a bilingual system "in administrative matters", at least in relations between the local services and the public. As regards paragraph 3, which is applicable to "the question of schools", it is worded as follows:
   
   "A. Teaching shall be in Dutch.
   The second language may be taught at the primary level to the extent of four hours a week in the second form and eight hours a week in the third and fourth forms.
   B. Nursery and primary schooling may be given to children in French if that is their maternal or usual language and if the head of the family resides in one of these communes.
   Such schooling may be provided only on the request of 16 heads of families residing within the commune.
   The commune to which such an application is made must organise such schooling.
   The teaching of the second national language shall be compulsory in primary schools to the extent of four hours a week in the second form and eight hours a week in the third and fourth forms.
   C. The teaching of the second language may include exercises of revising the other subjects of the programme".
   For the six communes in question, the linguistic control set up by Chapter V of the Act of 30th July 1963 is supplemented by that exercised by the Government commissioner, Vice-Governor of the province of Brabant (Section 7 (1) and (5) of the Act of 2nd August 1963).
   
   2. Arguments presented by the Applicants before or through the Commission
   <LI value=16>The Applicants from Kraainem (Application No 1677/62) consider that this legislation violates Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention. In their view, "the Brussels urban area" constitutes "a single indivisible entity". The Act of 30th July 1963 (Sections 4 and 5) and the Act of 2nd August 1963 (Sections 3, 6 and 7), however, provide "at least three distinct" systems: that for Greater Brussels, that for the six communes mentioned above, including Kraainem, and that of the other "surrounding" communes, including Alsemberg and Beersel, which still belong to the Dutch language region. Such a system reflects a wish "to throttle the facts": anxious to ensure the "Flemish reconquest" of the "outlying communes where the Brussels overspill has gone", the public authorities have confined the capital "within iron bounds", all the more rigid as the Act of 24th July 1961 has suppressed the linguistic part of the population census.
   
   "Although relatively better" than that of Alsemberg and Beersel, the status of Kraainem represents the "height of absurdity" for it aims at the "protection" of a French-speaking majority, not a minority. This protection, moreover, is still highly insufficient; it merely provides "facilities of little value", wrongly described as "large concessions". First, Section 7 (3) (B) of the Act of 2nd August 1963 concerns only nursery and primary education; the secondary and technical schools at Wemmel, Wezembeek-Oppem and Rhode-St. Genèse follow the Flemish unilingual regime, as would those which would be opened at Kraainem, Drogenbos and Linkebeek. Even in the sphere of nursery and primary education, Section 7 (3) (B) is not satisfactory: it adopts the criterion of the maternal or usual language, which does not fully ensure freedom of choice for the parents and the severity of which is increased by a strict linguistic control. Moreover, local authorities often "drag their feet" in the opening of French classes in the six communes. Further still, Article 7 (3) (B) requires, for those classes, the teaching of Dutch for four hours a week in the second form at the primary level and eight hours in the third and fourth forms; "teaching of the second language" thus "takes up more time" than that of the first language, "since only six hours of French" are "foreseen in Belgian primary school curricula". This situation is the more "extraordinary" as teaching of French in the Dutch classes at Kraainem is optional (Section 7 (3) (A) of the Act of 2nd August 1963). In short, the Belgian Parliament is seeking to make the children "comply" with "the demands of the ground". Compelled to respect "certain acquired rights which are strikingly obvious and of great importance", it tolerates them only "provisionally" in order to "do away with them as soon as possible". In the final analysis, the French classes in Kraainem are nothing but "instruments of depersonalisation", "intensive transmutation classes". Accordingly the Applicants refuse to send their children to them; to benefit from "a decent education in French", the latter make "long and expensive daily journeys to one of the 19 communes of Brussels", at the cost of "disruption in their private and family life" and in that of their parents.
   3. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission
   <LI value=17>Before the Commission, the Belgian Government maintained that the linguistic status in education of Kraainem infringes none of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked. While its principal argument was that the Articles were totally inapplicable (cf. supra), it presented several subsidiary arguments. It observed in substance, that the linguistic control does not operate with the arbitrary strictness alleged by the Applicants, that the French classes at Kraainem in no way constitute instruments of depersonalisation and that the Belgian Parliament is certainly not seeking the "Flemish reconquest" of the environs of Brussels.
   Before the Court, the Belgian Government spent little time on this question; it referred expressly to the opinion of the majority of the Commission.
   <LI value=18>The Commission, for its part, considers that the "special status" defined in Section 7 (3) of the Act of 2nd August 1963 does not conflict with the requirements of the Convention or the Protocol. It confirmed before the Court the opinion expressed by it on this question in its Report.
   Being of the opinion that the Applications "should be declared ill-founded" in so far as they are based on Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) (cf. supra) the Commission does not consider it to be necessary to examine the "particular circumstances which distinguish the Applications from one another", or the differences "between the 1932 legislation and that of 1963". It points out, nevertheless, that by virtue of the Act of 2nd August 1963, "the Kraainem Applicants may obtain education in French for their children, at least at the primary level".
   As far as concerns Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, the Applicants have no complaint to make of any "State interference in private and family life" since secondary education does not have to be taken into account in this respect (cf. supra) and since Kraainem has, at this very moment, primary school classes in French. They give "no details" on the question of the "reticence" for which they reproach the local authorities and, above all, do not assert that "their children cannot receive a French education on the spot". Moreover, "in principle" they have "nothing to fear" from linguistic control if they are all truly French-speaking; in the event of "one of them" considering himself "the victim of a wrong decision by the language inspectorate, domestic remedies are open to him". The complaint based on the intensive teaching of Dutch in the French schools at Kraainem is also unjustified: the Commission finds it "natural that a bilingual State such as Belgium should take steps, especially in bilingual areas, to ensure that its inhabitants know the country's two languages"; "at the most one might", according to the Commission, "find it surprising that, in the Dutch schools" in Kraainem, "the teaching of French is optional". The obligation to learn "the second language of the country" is not an "attack" on the "pupils personality and private life": "general education is given in French" and parents in most cases have "the means to ensure that their children acquire a good knowledge of their maternal language". "In any event", the Applicants have not "informed the Commission of any case in which there is no such possibility".
   The Commission finally examines the question as to whether, on the point under consideration, there is a violation of Article 14 of the Convention, in conjunction with Article 2 of the Protocol (art. 14+P1-2) or Article 8 (art. 14+8) of the Convention. Certain rules relating to the status in issue seem to it to reflect "the Belgian State's desire to ensure the maintenance of the Dutch-language", indeed to assimilate "minorities, against their wish, into the sphere of the regional language". Eleven members of the Commission, however, believe that this does not result in any discrimination incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14). Seven of them consider it to be "quite proper that the Act should enforce the teaching of Dutch in communes in which the Dutch language is spoken by a large proportion of the inhabitants, sometimes a majority". As regards the absence, at Kraainem, of "official or subsidised French education at secondary level", this does not seem to these members of the Commission to be incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14): "if it is agreed that the State's refusal to establish or subsidise primary education in French" is not of a discriminatory nature, the same conclusion applies, a fortiori, "to secondary education". It is true that the State draws a distinction, in this respect, in a way detrimental to French-speaking pupils; this, however, represents "a favour granted by the law to Flemish-speaking inhabitants" and "not a hardship interfering with enjoyment by the French-speaking population of the rights guaranteed by the Convention". "According to the information received by the Commission", moreover, there is Dutch secondary education only in three of the communes referred to in Section 7 (1) of the Act of 2nd August 1963, namely, Wemmel, Wezembeek-Oppem and Rhode-St. Genèse. Dutch-speaking parents living at Kraainem must also therefore send their children "to schools at some distance" if they wish them to receive secondary education; this situation does not in any way depend "on the language question". Four other members of the Commission likewise conclude, on different grounds, that the system in the six communes on the outskirts of Brussels is not incompatible with the Convention. On the other hand, one member does not accept this conclusion. He is substantially of the opinion that the Kraainem Applicants remain "although to a much lesser extent than before 1963", "victims of discrimination incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention". The Commission draws the attention of the Court to these different individual opinions.
   
   4. Decision of the Court
2. The residence conditions to which the fifth question relates being reserved until later, the special status conferred by Section 7 (3) of the Act of 2nd August 1963 on six communes on the periphery of Brussels, including Kraainem, does not violate, in the case of the signatories of Application No. 1677/62, any of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked by them before the Commission.
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   1. As is the case with the legal and administrative provisions with which the first and second questions are concerned, the status of the six communes involves neither a denial of the right to education, guaranteed by the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2), nor any derogation from the right to respect for private and family life enshrined in Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention.
   2. On this point, the Court first emphasises that the French-language nursery and primary schools existing in the six communes are open to the children of the signatories of Application No. 1677/62. The right to education of these children, within the meaning of the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2), is thus respected.
   3. Moreover, no interference with the exercise of the right to respect for private and family life protected by Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention can be found in this case. In alleging before the Commission that this provision had been violated, the Applicants have misunderstood its scope. To require a child to study in depth that national language which is not his own, cannot be characterised as an act of "depersonalisation". As regards the decision of certain Applicants to send their children to a French-language school in Greater Brussels, rather than to a school governed by Section 7 (3) (B) of the Act of 2nd August 1963, this is the result of their own choice and not of an interference by the authorities in their private and family life.
   4. It remains to be decided whether the measures in issue violate the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol or Article 8 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2, art. 14+8).
   5. Here again the reply must be negative.
   6. The six communes in question belong to an area which is by tradition Dutch-speaking. In consideration of the large number of French-speaking persons who are resident there, the legislature has established a system which departs from the principle of territoriality. It makes the organisation of official or subsidised education in French subject to the deposit of a request by 16 heads of family living in the commune in question; moreover, this education is compulsorily accompanied by a study in depth of Dutch. In so doing, the Act does not go outside limits drawn according to objective criteria and is based on a public interest. Furthermore, the establishment and maintenance of education conducted in French is possible in the communes concerned. Finally, the fact that this education is tied to a study in depth of Dutch, whereas the study of French remains optional in Dutch schools in the same communes, does not constitute a discrimination as the latter belong to a region which is, by tradition, Dutch-speaking.
   7. As regards the argument based on the absence, at Kraainem, of official or subsidised secondary education in French, the Court recalls that Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) does not require the Contracting States to establish educational establishments: the question is thus one which is left to the evaluation of the competent national authorities. The Court also notes once again that in Belgium compulsory schooling extends essentially to primary education. It points out, incidentally, that Kraainem does not even possess, at present, education in Dutch at the secondary level.
      1. D. As to the fourth question
      <LI value=20>The fourth question concerns the issue of whether or not in the case of the Applicants, there is a violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention, or of any of those Articles,
      
      "with regard to the conditions on which children whose parents reside outside the Greater Brussels district may be enrolled in the schools of that district (Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963)".
      1. The Facts
      <LI value=21>The second, third, fourth and fifth paragraphs of Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963 provide that:
      
      "In all cases in which the child's language of instruction is determined by his maternal or usual language, the head of the school may register the child for a particular system only on production of one of the following:
      (a) a certificate issued by the head of the school which the pupil has just left, certifying that his previous schooling has been through that language;
      (b) a language declaration by the head of the child's family, and approved by the language inspectorate in all cases where the inspectorate has no doubts as to the correctness of such declaration;
      (c) a decision by the Commission or Board referred to in Section 18.
      Where a child is registered at a nursery school for the first time, the head of the school may, however, admit him on production of a language declaration. The latter must within one month be forwarded to the language inspectorate for verification.
      In the case of pupils who enrol in a school in the Greater Brussels district and whose parents reside outside that district, the language of instruction shall, in the absence of any declaration to the contrary made by the head of the family and approved by the language inspectorate, be the language of the region in which the parents are resident.
      The King shall lay down standard forms for the certificate and declaration which shall comprise any information likely to facilitate the verification of their correctness."
      A Royal Decree was issued on 30 November 1966 which implemented this last paragraph; two other Royal Decrees of the same date stipulated the status and rules governing the functioning of the language inspectorate as provided for by Section 18 of the Act of 30th July 1963.
      
      2. Arguments presented by the Applicants before or through the Commission
      <LI value=22>According to the Applicants, these provisions are incompatible with Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention. In the Greater Brussels district, "the language of instruction is" in principle "Dutch or French, according to the maternal or usual language of the child" (Section 5 of the Act of 30th July 1963). However, the system of the maternal or usual language does not secure to parents a complete freedom of choice: the declaration of the head of the family must be "a statement of fact" not "the expression of a wish", and the language inspectorate verifies its accuracy (Sections 17 and 18 of the Act of 30th July 1963). This control, which the Applicants consider to be "of an odious nature" in itself, in addition opens the door to "arbitrary" decisions, more especially as the maternal language may differ from the usual language and as there exist many bilingual homes. As to the appeals available under the Acts of 30th July 1963 (Section 18) and 23rd December 1946 (Conseil d'&#201;tat), they do not have a suspensive effect and, moreover, cannot correct the fundamental defect in the system criticised.
      The complaints of the Applicants, however, are principally directed against the fourth paragraph of Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963, which concerns the particular situation of parents wishing to send their children to school in the Greater Brussels district but whose homes are outside the district. This paragraph introduces a further obstacle to the exercise of the Applicants' freedom of choice: if they send their children to be educated in the capital, the language of instruction will normally be that of the region where they live, in this case Dutch. Of course the head of the family may make a declaration to the contrary but he will have to obtain, under the conditions described above, the agreement of the language inspectorate. To rebut the "legal presumption" embodied in the fourth paragraph of Section 17, he must provide a "counter proof" "a distinctly discriminatory procedure" in the view of the Applicants. "In doubtful or complex cases", which are no unusual thing in Belgium, the presumption will prevail.
      For children leaving a nursery school situated in the unilingual Flemish area, sending them to Brussels constitutes an even more precarious solution by reason of the second and third paragraphs.
      In short, Section 17 tends to deprive the head of the family "even at the price of dislocating his home", "of the elementary right to have his flesh and blood resemble him intellectually".
      The signatories of Application No. 2126/64 nevertheless observe that "1253 children from Vilvorde attend French schools in Brussels or Wallonia". For the transport of children from the age of three up to nine or 10 years they have hired coaches; furthermore they have established a rota system to supervise the children's mounting at the various departure points and dismounting at the arrival points. Other Applicants seem to have adopted the same solution.
      
      3. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission
      <LI value=23>Before the Commission, the Belgian Government maintained that Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963, and in particular its fourth paragraph, violates neither Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) nor Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention. While its principal argument was that the Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) were totally inapplicable (cf. supra), it presented a series of subsidiary arguments. It observed, in the first place, that the criterion of the maternal or usual language is much more simple, flexible and liberal than the Applicants contend. A child whose language is French runs no risk of being denied admission to the French classes of Greater Brussels, even if he has begun his schooling in Flanders and in Dutch. In this respect, the Act of 30th July 1963 differs from that of 14th July 1932 on one point only: it creates "two legal presumptions" based respectively on "the language in which the child was previously taught" (second paragraph of Section 17) and on the language of the region where his parents live (fourth paragraph). These presumptions may, however, be "rebutted by a declaration by the father of a family". As regards the language inspectorate, it does not function with the strictness alleged by the Applicants; its objectivity is further guaranteed through the appeals provided for by the legislation in force (Section 18 of the Act of 30th July 1963, Royal Decree of 30th November 1966, on the functioning of the language inspectorate and Act of 23rd December 1946 creating a Conseil d'&#201;tat in Belgium). Consequently abuses ascribable to "punctilious officials" occur only rarely. Moreover, the Applicants are not entitled to complain thereof to the Commission until they have "sought a remedy" before the competent "national tribunal".
      Before the Court, the Belgian Government referred expressly to the opinion of the Commission on the point in question. Moreover it emphasised that children whose mother tongue or usual language is, for example, German, rather than French or Dutch, "can enrol in a French-language school in the Greater Brussels district as well as in a Dutch-language school". It added that "schools in the Greater Brussels district that provide some special education" given in one language only may admit pupils whose mother tongue is not the language of instruction, even if their parents reside outside the district. It is sufficient, in such a case, that it is impossible for them to receive "the education in question in their own linguistic region" (Ministerial circular of 10th October 1963).
   8. The Commission, confirming before the Court the unanimous opinion formulated by it in this matter in its Report, considers that Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963 does not infringe any of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked by the Applicants. As far as concerns Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, viewed in isolation, its opinion is based on considerations summarised above. Neither does the Commission think that Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963 involves, in this case, a discrimination contrary to Article 14 of the Convention read in conjunction with Article 2 of the Protocol (art. 14+P1-2) or Article 8 (art. 14+8) of the Convention. It is true that it observes that the Dutch-speaking parents in Wallonia do not seem to send their children to the Greater Brussels district as frequently as French-speaking parents in Flanders; it sees here one of the proofs of the relative nature of the "parallelism" established by law between the two large linguistic areas. The fact that Dutch-speaking children "are not admitted to French schools in Brussels", and the existence of linguistic control, seem to the Commission to reflect "the Belgian State's desire to ensure the maintenance of the Dutch language". The Commission observes, however, that the Applicants including those of Vilvorde nowhere assert "that any of their children have not been admitted to the French schools in Brussels"; it concludes from this that "they cannot claim to be victims of a discriminatory measure".
      In its memorial of 16th December 1965, the Commission draws "the Court's attention to a special aspect of the legislation complained of by the Applicants": "even where the legislation in force provides for a dual language system for official or recognised education", for example in the Greater Brussels district, "it does not give parents the choice between French and Dutch as their children's language of instruction" since it "lays down the system of "the material or usual language" and makes the declaration of the head of the family subject to verification by the language inspectorate". The Commission wonders whether the result is a simple "legitimate distinction" or in actual fact a "discrimination" incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14). Nevertheless the question does not seem to it "to arise in specific terms in the cases before the Court, since the Applicants claim to be French-speaking and want their children to be instructed in French".
      
      4. Decision of the Court
   9. The conditions which regulate the enrolment in the schools of the Greater Brussels District of children whose parents are resident outside this district, are laid down in Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963. The application of this provision does not, in the case of the Applicants, violate any of the three Articles of the Convention and Protocol (art. 8, art. 14, P1-2) invoked by them before the Commission.
      The Court recalls that the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) does not, by itself, imply any requirement of a linguistic nature and that Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention does not lay down any personal right of parents in relation to the education of their children. It further finds that the legal provision in issue has not caused unjustifiable disturbance to the private and family life of the Applicants.
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   1. Nor does the Court find, on the point under consideration, any discrimination contrary to Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (art. 14+P1-2) or with Article 8 (art. 14+8) of the Convention; such discrimination has not, in any case, been shown by the Applicants.
   2. In its memorial of 16th December 1965, the Commission drew the attention of the Court to the fact that where there exists a dual system of official or subsidised education, as for instance at Brussels, parents are not free to choose between French and Dutch as the language of education for their children. In the present case, this question assumes a theoretical character since the Applicants declare themselves to be French-speaking and wish their children to be educated in French; indeed the Commission has not failed to point out this fact. The Court cannot settle a problem which does not arise in the present case.
      1. E. As to the fifth question
      <LI value=26>The fifth question concerns the issue as to whether or not, in the case of the Applicants, there is a violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) or of Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention, or of any of those Articles,
      
      "in so far as Section 7, last paragraph, of the Act of 30th July 1963 and Section 7, third paragraph, of the Act of 2nd August 1963 prevent certain children, solely on the basis of their parents' place of residence, from attending French-language schools at Louvain and in the six communes" on the outskirts of Brussels which enjoy a "special status", including Kraainem."
      1. The Facts
      <LI value=27>Under Section 7, second paragraph in fine, of the Act of 30th July 1963, a motivated Royal Decree, after deliberation in the Council of Ministers and being published in full in the "Official Gazette", may provide for exceptions to the provisions of Section 4 - which concerns the unilingual regions - in respect of:
      
      "Special teaching classes, technical education classes which are at present in existence, and secondary school classes which are at present in existence, serving as teacher-training for a university and which are situated in the same urban area as such university. Such classes shall be open only to children whose maternal or usual language is not the language taught in the region in which the school is situated, and where the head of the family resides outside such region or is covered by the special regime provided for in Section 40 of the Act on the use of language in administrative matters; they are also open to children of foreign nationality, where the head of the family belongs to an organisation set up under international law, an embassy, legation or consulate."
      Section 40 of the Act of 2nd August 1963 on the use of languages in administrative matters, to which this provision refers, concerns "the employees, students and teaching staff" of the "bilingual University situated in a commune not subject to a special regime", "as well as members of their families living with them".
      In pursuance of Section 7, second paragraph in fine, of the Act of 30th July 1963, a Royal Decree of 8th August 1963, published in the Official Gazette of 22nd August 1963, introduced "temporary exceptions to the provisions of Section 4" of the same Act. The main provisions of the Royal Decree were as follows:
      
      "BAUDOUIN, King of the Belgians,
      (...)
      Whereas the short space of time between the publication of this Act and its implementation makes it impossible to carry out a thorough study of the situation of the various existing classes which might avail themselves of a derogation from the provisions of Section 4
      
      (...);
      Whereas the position during the school year 1963-1964 of the schools concerned should be decided as soon as possible;
      
      (...),
      We have decreed and do decree:
      Section 1, Official schools and independent schools either subsidised or recognised by the State which, during the school year 1962-1963, provided instruction in a language other than that of the region in which the school is situated, may continue such instruction during the school year 1963-1964:
      
      (a) (...);
      (b) in the technical or special education classes;
      (c) in the French secondary education classes of the Institut du Sacré-Coeur at Heverlee.
      Such teaching shall be open only to those children who were already registered at the school during the academic year 1962-1963, as well as to children to whom Section 7 of the Act of 30th July 1963 applies.
      Section 2 (...)."
      The Belgian Government, at the request of the Court, produced on 30th November 1967 the text of a Royal Decree of 30th November 1966 "taken in pursuance of Section 7, paragraph 2, 2o of the Act of 30th July 1963". Published in the Official Gazette on 3rd December 1966, this Royal Decree apparently displays a permanent character lacking in that of 8th August 1963. The principal provisions are as follows:
      
      "BAUDOUIN, King of the Belgians,
      (...)
      Having regard to the existence of organised education in the special teaching classes, and to that on 30th July 1963, of organised education in technical education classes, in secondary school classes serving as teacher training for the Catholic University of Louvain, and which are situated in the same urban area as this University;
      
      (...);
      Considering the urgency;
      
      (...);
      We have decreed and do decree:
      Section 1. Education organised in French in special teaching classes as well as that existing on 30th July 1963 in technical education classes and in secondary school classes serving as teacher training for the Catholic University of Louvain, and which are situated in the same urban area as this University, is available to children referred to in Section 7 paragraph 2, 2o of the Act of 30th July 1963, as well as to those who were already enrolled in such classes for the school year 1962-1963.
      Section 2. The present Decree enters into force on 1st September 1966.
      Section 3. (...)"
      The city of Louvain and the adjacent commune of Heverlee are both situated in the "Dutch-language region"; they are a few kilometres from the linguistic frontier. The Catholic University has been situated at Louvain for centuries; it includes both a Flemish and a French section. L'Institut du Sacré-Coeur at Heverlee is also an independent establishment; it formerly had French secondary classes open only to girls. As those classes served, inter alia, as "student teachers" classes of the University, the Royal Decree of 8th August 1963 authorised their retention. As regards the Royal Decree of 30th November 1966, it does not seem to have changed their position to their detriment although it no longer refers expressly to them. The Applicants and the Belgian Government have not drawn attention to the presence of French language classes - official, subsidised or recognised - in the Louvain urban area, other than those of L'Institut du Sacré-Coeur at Heverlee. It appears, however, from the report of the Commission and from the Royal Decrees of 8th August 1963 and 30th November 1966 that special, technical and secondary French-language classes, attached to the University of Louvain, have likewise been able to survive.
      Whether situated at Louvain or at Heverlee, the classes in question enjoy financial support from the State. Admission is granted, however, to four types of children only: children who attended the classes during the school year 1962-1963; children of employees, students and teaching staff of the University as well as members of their family living with them; children of foreign nationality, when the head of the family belongs to an international law organisation, embassy, legation or consulate; and finally, children of French-speaking Belgians if the head of the family lives outside the Dutch-speaking region.
      <LI value=28>Article 7 para. 3 (b) of the Act of 2nd August 1963 has already been cited in extenso in connection with the third question (para. 15 supra). It will be enough to recall here that at Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Rhode-St. Genèse, Wemmel and Wezembeek-Oppem, nursery and primary school teaching must be conducted in French for children when it is their maternal or usual language, "if the head of the family resides in one of the communes" and if "16 heads of family residing within the commune" concerned request it.
      The Commission considers this provision to be "somewhat ambiguous". It gives the following interpretation which the Belgian Government has not disputed:
      
      "It (...) appears, that heads of family who live in other communes of the same category may not join together to request the opening of a French-school in one of these communes; the request may come only from sixteen heads of family all living in the same commune. On the other hand, it appears certain that if there is a French-speaking school in one of the communes in question, French-speaking children in other communes of the same category (...) may also enter it".
      Whatever the case may be, a child cannot attend the French classes at Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Rhode-St. Genèse, Wemmel or Wezembeek-Oppem if the head of the family resides elsewhere than in one of the six communes enjoying "a special status", for example in the unilingual Flemish region.
      
      2. Arguments presented by the Applicants before or through the Commission
      <LI value=29>According to the Applicants, the legislation in issue is, on the two points under consideration, incompatible with Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention.
      As far as concerns the French classes at Louvain and Heverlee, the signatories of Application No. 1994/63 (Louvain and environs), first assert that Louvain is an asset "belonging to Belgium as a whole" and consequently "should enjoy a national rather than a Flemish status". However the French section of the University was "very nearly" abolished in 1963 in the name of "the principle of the absolute integrity of Flemish territory"; this idea is said to have been given up only for practical and financial reasons and action aiming at the "expulsion" of the French section to Wallonia is now being pursued. The Applicants furthermore emphasise that at Louvain and Heverlee there formerly existed a series of French classes including transmutation classes. The entry into force of the Act of 30th July 1963 brought about the disappearance of the majority of these classes. As for those which remain, they are of a precarious and revocable nature since Section 7 paragraph 2 of the Act of 30th July 1963 is of a permissive not mandatory character ("exceptions may be made").
      The signatories of Application No. 1994/63 reproach the Belgian legislature for preventing them from enrolling their children in the classes which remained. They declare that they are almost all resident at Louvain, Heverlee or in other communes in the unilingual Flemish region, that they are not employees, students or professors at the Catholic University and that they are of Belgian nationality. They admit therefore that they do not comply with the various requirements laid down in Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963. The language inspectorate carefully verifies the fulfilment of these conditions; one of the Applicants had personal experience of this. Consequently, Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963 runs counter to the "wishes of the Applicants" from Louvain, "to give their children a French education". It brings about a situation "all the more open to criticism since the Applicants" use "the French language" exclusively or principally, and since "they live in a region with a large French-speaking minority where a French school still exists to which they are denied access". This last circumstance shows that it matters little, in this case, whether or not Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) creates a positive obligation. In order to give their children the opportunity of pursuing their education in French, the Applicants are obliged either to engage in "scholastic emigration" or to leave Louvain; the result is an infraction of the rights guaranteed by Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention. By opening French classes at Louvain and Heverlee to certain foreign children and to those of the employees, students and professors of the University, the legislature has established "schools for castes and privileged persons". In general, Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963 introduces a series of discriminations based not only on residence but also on *** (Institut du Sacré-Coeur at Heverlee), language, belonging to a national or linguistic minority, nationality and profession. The Antwerp and Ghent Applicants (Applications Nos. 1691/62 and 1769/63) likewise complain that they cannot send their children to the French classes in the Louvain urban area.
      The residence condition to which Section 7 § 3-B of the Act of 2nd August 1963 subordinates admission to French classes in the six communes enjoying "a special status" is likewise incompatible with the Convention and the Protocol. It is true that it in no way prejudices the signatories of Application No. 1677/62 since they live at Kraainem; the Commission and the Belgian Government have not failed to make this point. In fact these Applicants above all attack other aspects of the system applicable to Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Rhode-St. Genèse, Wemmel and Wezembeek-Oppem (cf. supra); nevertheless, they consider as abnormal a "strictly territorialist" provision which "prevents children living on the other side of the street, that happens to lie within the administrative area of another commune", from attending the schools in question. The Applicants from Alsemberg, Beersel, Antwerp, Ghent, Louvain and Vilvorde are more directly affected. Thus the son of one of the counsel representing the Applicants from Antwerp, Ghent and Vilvorde (Applications Nos. 1691/62, 1769/63 and 2126/64) lives at Tervueren, which is situated in the Dutch-language area but which is contiguous with Wezembeek-Oppem; the entry into force of the Act of 2nd August 1963 obliged him to withdraw his children from a French school at Wezembeek-Oppem, situated 150 metres from his home, and to send them every day to Brussels, about a dozen kilometres away. The Applicants consider that in this respect they are victims of violations of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention, and in particular of a discrimination based on residence.
      In the case of Louvain as in that of the six communes on the outskirts of Brussels, the discriminations denounced by the Applicants are not based on "financial or administrative" reasons; they reflect a will to enshrine the "rights of the ground" to the detriment of individual freedoms and to "liquidate the French-speaking minorities" by compelling them to "become flemicised" or to "move away".
      
      3. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission
   3. The Belgian Government maintains that the legislation in dispute in no way conflicts, on the two points under consideration, with the requirements of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked by the Applicants. While its principal argument was that the Articles were totally inapplicable (cf. supra), it presents several subsidiary arguments. It emphasises, in substance, that Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963 and Section 7 § 3-B of the Act of 2nd August 1963 depart from the territorial principle only for very special reasons: namely to respond to the "needs of the bilingual University of Louvain in the matter of teacher's training" and to provide in the six communes assigned "a special status", certain facilities for the "fairly large French-speaking minority" which exists there. These justifications explain at the same time the restrictions to which the exceptions are subject. Why should the legislature permit the "concessions" made to French-speaking persons at Louvain and in the communes on the outskirts of Brussels to become "the starting point for francisation of the Flemish populations in these and neighbouring communes", when its "avowable" and "legitimate" purpose consists precisely in ensuring in Flanders the formation of Dutch-speaking élites? The problems that arise in this matter are "problems of degree" and "how far those exceptions should be extended is a question not of law but of policy". The opinion of the Commission is somewhat "illogical and paradoxical" as the violation found by the majority "would disappear if the Belgian State simply withdrew the concessions" mentioned above.
   4. Confirming before the Court the opinion expressed in its Report, the Commission begins by observing that Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2), taken in isolation, "does not oblige the Belgian State to admit the Applicants' children to French schools - official or private - exceptionally or temporarily organised or maintained in the Flemish region": being "free either to establish or subsidise schools or to refrain from doing so", the State may "regulate admission to such schools as it sees fit". Two members of the Commission reach the same conclusion by different reasoning while three others consider it "incompatible with the first sentence of Article 2 (P1-2) (...) that the Belgian State should not allow French-speaking persons resident either in the unilingual Flemish region or in the area of the Brussels linguistic boundary to send their children to French schools in the vicinity". The Commission draws the Court's attention to these various individual opinions.
      Although "the exclusion of the Applicants' children" does not seem to it to be founded "on technical or administrative considerations", the Commission does not, even so, consider that "this constitutes a violation of Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention": if "the State, in spite of the compulsory schooling it had introduced, is not bound by the Convention to provide French education for French-speaking persons" in Flanders, "it follows that (...) it is not bound to open existing French schools to them or to subsidise French schools" which would admit "the Applicants' children under conditions not laid down by the linguistic legislation".
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1. [align=left]
2. The Commission finally considers the question of whether or not Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963 and Section 7 § 3-B of the Act of 2nd August 1963, on the point under consideration, comply with Article 2 of the Protocol and Article 8 of the Convention, this time read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2, art. 14+8). Its answer is negative as regards Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention and the second sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) but affirmative with respect to the first sentence of Article 2 (P1-2). The two provisions impugned by the Applicants seem to the Commission to figure among those which reflect a wish to assimilate minorities against their will into the sphere of the regional language. Not all of the inequalities of treatment created by Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963, however, amount to discrimination. The two exceptions made in favour of certain foreign children, and the children of "professors, students and employees of the University" of Louvain are justified, in the first case, by the rules of international courtesy, and in the second by the "bilingual character" of the University. Neither does the Commission see any discrimination "in the fact that the Institut du Sacré-Coeur at Heverlee admits only girls, or in the concession extended there to children enrolled for the school year 1962-1963" (Royal Decrees of 8th August 1963 and 30th November 1966).
3. On the other hand, the Commission believes that Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963 is incompatible with the right to education as it is jointly safeguarded by the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention, in so far as it closes the French schools at Louvain and at Heverlee to the "Applicants' children for the reason that they live in the Flemish region" (opinion expressed by eight votes to four). The position is the same as regards Section 7 of the Act of 2nd August 1963 in so far as paragraph 3-B excludes from the French-language classes in the six communes enjoying a special status those children whose parents do not reside within the communes, whereas the Dutch-language classes in these same communes "are open", according to paragraph 3-A, "subject to the availability of places", to "Dutch-speaking children" living in the neighbourhood and, in particular, in Wallonia (opinion expressed by seven votes to five).
4. The Commission does not believe that on this point it is "necessary to distinguish between official and recognised private schools". The latter would be "entitled" and "prepared" to "admit pupils without taking their parents' place of residence into consideration at all" but for the language legislation and the risk of losing their right to State subsidies. As regards the official schools, "one can of course conceive that they might be reserved", "for administrative or financial reasons", "to children living in one of the communes" where they exist. "The information supplied both by the Applicants and by the Belgian Government", however, shows the absence of such reasons. The "residence conditions" in question "can only be explained by a desire to prevent", in the Flemish region, "the spread or continuance of the French language and culture" if not to bring about even the assimilation of "minorities into the language or their surroundings". This intention is "particularly manifest in the case of the French schools at Louvain and Heverlee" where they admit "children from Wallonia" even though they refuse "the children of French-speaking persons living" on the spot. Consequently, it "matters little that neither the Convention nor the Protocol obliges the State to establish or subsidise any education whatsoever": "in this case such education exists and, where it is private, it is subsidised". The exclusion of the Applicants' children is, on analysis, a "hardship" and the Dutch-speaking children derive from it "no advantage". Would the simple abolition of French-language classes at Louvain, Heverlee, Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Rhode-St. Genèse, Wemmel and Wezembeek-Oppem remove the discrimination in question? The Commission does not think it need consider this possibility, one of the effects of which would be to deprive the locality of Kraainem of a French school, a locality "which has a French-speaking majority": "what may happen as the result of a change in legislation in the near or distant future" does not concern the Commission. In any case it seems to the Commission "rather unlikely that the Belgian Government would consider adopting such a radical solution", which would probably be "difficult" to adopt in practice.
5. Five members of the Commission find no violation in the case of Kraainem and the five other communes on the outskirts of Brussels; four of them equally find no violation in that of Louvain and Heverlee. The Commission draws the Court's attention to their dissenting opinions.
6. 1. 4. Decision of the Court
   <LI value=32>The Court will examine in turn the legal and administrative measures governing access to French-language education at, on the one hand, Louvain and Heverlee, and, on the other, the six communes with special facilities.
   Louvain and Heverlee belong to the Dutch-unilingual region. Although the legislature has authorised the maintenance of French-language education there, it has done so, above all, in consideration of the needs arising from the bilingual nature of the University of Louvain. The principles which govern the functioning of education in French in the two communes likewise determine the entrance requirements to this education. The benefits conferred by the provisions in dispute (Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963 and the Royal Decrees of 8th August 1963 and 30th November 1966) therefore depend upon their purpose. Essentially, they are accorded to the French-speaking teaching staff, employees and students of the University of Louvain in whose absence the establishment could no longer retain its bilingual character. Likewise, if the French classes at Louvain and Heverlee are still open to children of French-speaking families living outside the Dutch-unilingual region, it is because they serve as teacher training classes for the bilingual University of Louvain. As for the privilege granted to certain children of foreign nationality, this is justified by the customs of international courtesy. Consequently, the exclusion of French-speaking children living in the Dutch unilingual region whose parents are not members of the teaching staff, students or employees of the University, does not amount to a discriminatory measure in view of the legitimacy of the specific objective of the legislature.
   The situation is completely different in the case of the six communes "with special facilities", which belong to the agglomeration surrounding Brussels, the capital of a bilingual State and an international centre. According to the information supplied to the Court, the number of French-speaking families in these communes is high; they constitute, up to a certain point, a zone of a "mixed" character.
   It is in recognition of this fact that Section 7 of the Act of 2nd August 1963 departed from the territorial principle, as the Court noted when dealing with the third question. It appears, indeed, from its first paragraph that the six communes no longer form part of the Dutch unilingual region, but constitute a "distinct administrative district" invested with its own "special status". From this the second paragraph draws a first set of consequences: it provides in substance that the six communes concerned enjoy a bilingual system "in administrative matters". As to the third paragraph, the compatibility of which with Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention and with Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) is contested by the Applicants, it applies to "educational matters". It provides that the language of instruction is Dutch in the six communes; it requires nevertheless, the organisation, for the benefit of children whose maternal or usual language is French, of official or subsidised education in French at the nursery and primary levels, on condition that it is asked for by sixteen heads of family. However, this education is not available to children whose parents live outside the communes under consideration. The Dutch classes in the same communes, on the other hand, in principle accept all children, whatever their maternal or usual language and place of residence of their parents. The residence condition affecting therefore only one of the two linguistic groups, the Court is called upon to examine whether there results therefrom a discrimination contrary to Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (art. 14+P1-2) or with Article 8 (art. 14+8) of the Convention.
   Such a measure is not justified in the light of the requirements of the Convention in that it involves elements of discriminatory treatment of certain individuals, founded even more on language than on residence.
   First, this measure is not applied uniformly to families speaking one or the other national language. The Dutch-speaking children resident in the French unilingual region, which incidentally is very near, have access to Dutch-language schools in the six communes, whereas French-speaking children living in the Dutch unilingual region are refused access to French-language schools in those same communes. Likewise, the Dutch classes in the six communes are open to Dutch-speaking children of the Dutch unilingual region whereas the French classes in those communes are closed to the French-speaking children of that region.
   Such a situation, moreover, contrasts with that which arises from the possibility of access to French-language schools in the Greater Brussels District, which are open to French-speaking children irrespective of their parents' place of residence (Sections 5 and 19 of the Act of 30th July 1963).
   It consequently appears that the residence condition is not imposed in the interest of schools, for administrative or financial reasons: it proceeds solely, in the case of the Applicants, from considerations relating to language. Furthermore the measure in issue does not fully respect, in the case of the majority of the Applicants and their children, the relationship of proportionality between the means employed and the aim sought. In this regard the Court, in particular, points out that the impossibility of entering official or subsidised French-language schools in the six communes "with special facilities" affects the children of the Applicants in the exercise of their right to education, all the more in that there exist no such schools in the communes in which they live.
   The enjoyment of the right to education as the Court conceives it, and more precisely that of the right of access to existing schools, is not therefore on the point under consideration secured to everyone without discrimination on the ground, in particular, of language. In other words, the measure in question is, in this respect, incompatible with the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the Convention. In these circumstances, the Court does not consider it necessary to examine whether the said measure respects Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+8) or in isolation.
   
   F. As to the sixth question
   <LI value=33>The sixth question concerns the issue of whether or not, in the case of the Applicants, there is a violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention, or of any of these Articles.
   
   "in so far as the Acts of 1932 resulted, and those of 1963 result, in absolute refusal to homologate certificates relating to secondary schooling not in conformity with the language requirements in education."
   1. The Facts
   <LI value=34>At the end of each stage of secondary schooling the teaching establishments deliver to pupils a certificate specifying the course of studies followed and that they have been successfully completed. In fact, Belgium has not adopted the "Baccalauréat" system.
   The certificate granted on the completion of secondary studies states that the holder is considered suitable for higher education. However it acquires legal value only after "homologation" by a board, set up for the purpose for the whole of the country, the homologation board. This examines only the certificates. Homologation is granted only if the studies comply with the legal requirements.
   The holder of a non-homologated certificate may go on to higher studies, for instance at a University, and obtain a "non-recognised" ("scientifique") university degree, but not a "legally recognised" or "academic" degree. However, only "legally recognised" or "academic" degrees give access to a number of posts and professions: careers in the administration or the judiciary, the Bar, the profession of notary and the medical profession, etc. The holders of non-homologated certificates who aspire to such professions or who wish to acquire a legally recognised or academic degree, must take a full examination before a body called "the Central Board".
   <LI value=35>The homologation of a certificate depends on compliance not only with the technical and academic requirements laid down by law but also with those which concern the educational linguistic system.
   The Act of 12th May 1910 provided that, in order to be able to sit the examination of candidat en philosophie et lettres, candidat notaire, candidat en sciences naturelles, candidat en sciences physiques et mathématiques, holders of certificates which were not admissible for homologation for linguistic reasons had to take before the Central Board an additional examination relating to whichever of the two national languages had not been the language of their schooling at intermediate level. The position was similar in the draft stage of the Act of 15th July 1932; the explanatory memorandum of the Bill emphasised that those who aspired to a "profession for which a legally recognised degree was required should furnish proof of their knowledge of the language of the region in which they would be called upon to practise" The Belgian Parliament, however, modified this draft which became the Act of 15th July 1932 on the conferring of academic degrees.
7. The Act of 15th July 1932 repealed that of 12th May 1910 (Section 4). Its main provisions were as follows:
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1. [align=left]
   1. Section 1
   2. No one may be declared eligible to take the examination for the degree of candidat en philosophie et lettres, candidat en sciences or candidat en sciences naturelles et médicales unless he possesses a certificate of secondary schooling, issued in accordance with Sections 5 to 8 of the Act of 10th April 1890/3rd July 1891 on the conferring of academic degrees, certifying:
   3. A. If such certificate has been issued by an educational establishment situated in the Flemish region or in the Walloon region:<LI value=1>That the courses followed by the person concerned were made in the language of the region;
      <LI value=2>That the person concerned has, in each year of his schooling, been taught a second modern language, as referred to in Section 10 of the Act on the Language of Instruction in Primary and Secondary Schooling, for at least four hours a week.
      B. If the certificate has been issued by an educational establishment situated in a commune forming part of the Brussels urban complex or in a bilingual commune on the language boundary:
      <LI value=1>That the courses followed by the person concerned were so organised as to ensure that his maternal or usual language – either French or Flemish - was accorded pre-eminence as the language of instruction;
   4. That the person concerned has in each year of his schooling been taught Flemish, if his schooling has been in French, or French, if his schooling has been in Flemish, for at least four hours a week.
      Where the person concerned has had his schooling in one of the special classes referred to in Section 9 of the Act on the Language of Instruction in Primary and Secondary Schooling or in an analogous special class at an educational establishment not subject to the basic legislation on secondary education, his certificate of secondary schooling shall certify that he fulfilled the conditions imposed by the aforementioned Section 9 for admission to such a special class, and that the provisions of Section 10 of the said Act with regard to the teaching of a second language have been observed.
      The certificate shall clearly indicate under which regime the bearer's schooling was carried out.
      Section 2In applying the preceding Section to certificates issued by educational establishments not subject to the basic legislation on secondary schooling, the maternal or usual language of a child shall be determined by a declaration made by the head of his family. If there be any doubt as to the correctness of such declaration, the head of such establishment, or his deputy, assisted by two members of the teaching staff, shall, at the beginning of the school year, investigate the matter.
      The certificate of secondary schooling shall expressly state that this procedure has been strictly followed.
      Section 3Where the bearer of a certificate of secondary schooling has had his schooling at two or more educational establishments situated in different regions, such certificate shall certify that the provisions of Article 1 have been complied with in each region.
      Where the bearer began his secondary schooling abroad and completed it in Belgium, the certificate shall certify that the provisions of Section 1 have been complied with so far as concerns that part of his schooling which took place in Belgium.
      Section 5In applying the present Act to the German-speaking communes, exceptions justified by local conditions may be provided for by a motivated Royal Decree, to be published in the Official Gazette."
      The refusal to homologate certificates which do not conform with the linguistic legislation was later extended to various types of studies not governed by the Act of 15th July 1932 (Act of 27th July 1947, Royal Decree of 5th May 1953 and Section 23 of the Act of 29th May 1959).
   5. Section 24 of the Act of 30th July 1963, Sections 4-8 of which determine the language of instruction in the different regions of the Kingdom, repealed the Act of 15th July 1932. Under Section 19 of the 1963 Act:
      
      "Only school-leaving certificates that have been issued by the educational establishments referred to in Section 1 or by other independent educational establishments, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, may be subject to homologation.
      An exception shall be made in the case of certificates issued by a university by way of exception from Section 4 of this Act to recognise studies during a preparatory year for the degree of candidat ingénieur civil."
      Section 1, to which Section 19 refers, lays down that the Act of 30th July 1963 is applicable to "official nursery, primary and secondary schools and teachers' training, technical and artistic colleges" and to "similar independent establishments subsidised or recognised by the State". As for Section 4, it stipulates that "the medium of instruction is Dutch in the Dutch-language region, French in the French-language region and German in the German-language region, except for the cases laid down in Sections 6-8".
      The scope of Section 19, cited above, has been the subject of controversy between the Applicants and the Belgian Government. The Applicants maintained that, according to Section 19, taken with Section 1, the homologation of secondary school leaving certificates no longer depends, as under the Act of 15th July 1932, exclusively upon the "linguistic regularity" of the studies in question, but also upon that of the earlier nursery and primary education. The Belgian Government contested the accuracy of this interpretation. After examining the problem, the Commission came to the conclusion, together with the Belgian Government, that Section 19 in actual fact applies only to secondary education. The views developed by the Commission on this point seem entirely convincing to the Court.
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1. <LI value=38>[align=left]
   
   1. <LI value=38>Under the 1963 legislation, as under that of 1932, refusal of homologation can be remedied by an examination before the Central Board. As the Belgian Government has emphasised, "the Central Board was not originally created as a means for escaping the provisions of the language laws, but with a social and democratic aim: it enables children from poor families, whose parents could not afford to pay for regular schooling, to acquire nevertheless a legally recognised diploma. It also serves to correct mistakes where a child has gone into the wrong stream". Hence there are among those who appear before the Board, in addition to pupils who have completed their studies without conforming to the language laws, "many persons, who are self-taught, have received an irregular education or have followed a correspondence course". Central Boards exist not only at the level of intermediate education (lower and higher), but also for commercial education, teachers' training, university education and the most important branches of technical and artistic education.
      
      The examination covers all the subjects contained in the official syllabus of the studies covered. As regards secondary education, the candidates have the option of presenting themselves in two stages which correspond to the two cycles - lower and higher - of this education. The tests are conducted in Dutch, French or German at the choice of the person concerned. Enrolment is subject to the payment of fees which at present amount to 100 Belgian francs, for the obtaining of the diploma permitting entry to higher secondary education (examen de maturité), and 200 Belgian francs for that of the certificate of higher secondary studies or the diploma of admission to the examination of candidat ingénieur civil (Official Gazette of 4th May 1968, pages 5103-5104).
      The further information supplied to the Court in January 1968 by the Belgian Government and the Commission shows "that the number of certificates awarded by schools and entitled to homologation is greater for Dutch than for French education" but that "the opposite is true of certificates awarded by the Central Board". The Commission attributes this phenomenon to the number of French-speaking candidates who do not have their school-leaving certificate homologated owing to the irregularity of their studies for linguistic reasons.
      Neither the Belgian Government nor the Commission have been able to satisfy the Court's desire to obtain a table classifying, on the one hand, the pupils possessing a certificate signifying the completion of their secondary education but who have not conformed with the language legislation and, on the other hand, the other candidates. The Belgian Government points out that "the enrolment forms of the candidates intentionally do not bear any question concerning prior education", as it is desired that the Central Board should enjoy a position of "complete objectivity".
      It appears that the percentage of successful candidates who register before the Central Board for the higher grade of intermediate education generally fluctuates between 25 and 50 % for each of the two annual examinations and that fairly often it is lower in the case of children sitting the examination in French than in Dutch. According to the Belgian Government, it "corresponds roughly to the percentage of students who, having opened their secondary studies, manage to complete them successfully". A candidate who fails at the first attempt may present himself before the Central Board as many times as he wishes.
      
      2. Arguments presented by the Applicants before or through the Commission
   2. The Applicants are of the opinion that although the provisions in force prior to the legislation of 1932 (Act of 12th May 1910) were "eminently fair" in this matter, the Act of 15th July 1932 violated and Section 19 of the Act of 30th July 1963 violates, on the point under consideration, Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention. In their view the refusal of homologation renders "illusory" and a "hoax" the sending of children to private French-language schools situated in Flanders as these schools deliver only "a mere piece of parchment of no practical use". It is true that employers are sometimes "at a pinch" satisfied with such a certificate; it also sometimes happens that pupils "at boarding schools for girls" are less concerned with getting a legally valid diploma than with acquiring "a good education". These are, however, "extremely rare" cases. "In official organisations, the civil service, and local government", only the legally recognised diploma counts, and this is "an essential document" in the career of everyone in Belgium. The Applicants do not dispute that the possession of a certificate without homologation is sufficient to allow access to "non-recognised degrees" as opposed to "legally recognised" or "academic" degrees. However the very existence of these two distinct degrees implies a difference in their value. The non-recognised degrees are of interest to almost no-one but foreigners. They are divided into two categories, the first comprising 118 degrees corresponding to certain of the 3469 legally recognised degrees, and the second "degrees awarded for courses not covered by law". The holder of a non-homologated certificate is not, in principle, admitted to technical education, higher level secondary commercial education and higher commercial studies, or "the most attractive professions", such as Bench and Bar, in general the civil service and local government, the medical and para-medical professions, etc. To the Belgian Government's objection that the Convention does not guarantee the right to exercise a profession, the Applicants replied that they are not invoking such a right but rather "the freedom of the father of the family, the right to education, the right to respect for family life" and the principle of non-discrimination. In their opinion, the refusal of homologation amounts to a "penalty" in disguise, to a "punitive" measure which condemns the "dissident" establishments to close down. It is not based on administrative or technical considerations relating, for example, to the "value of the teaching" or "its conformity with the curriculum", but is to be explained only by a deliberate wish to "stamp out" French in Flanders and to "dutchify" Brussels and its surroundings. It thus assumes an arbitrary and discriminatory character. Effectively it condemns anyone who has "received a French education in Flanders or a Flemish education in Wallonia", to be a "second class citizen". "The most flagrant" discrimination is to be found "at the international level" for Belgium recognises the equivalence of secondary school leaving certificates conferred in a number of States with which it has concluded bilateral or multilateral agreements.
      As regards the possibility of obtaining a legally recognised diploma, by going before the Central Board, the Applicants consider it to be in substance a "palliative" of a "discriminatory" nature. On this matter they emphasise that "a certificate of secondary school studies made in French in the Flemish region" and in accordance with the "official syllabus", is "tainted with nullity even though it attests to the same amount of work and knowledge as a Flemish diploma or a French diploma issued in the Brussels or Walloon regions". Furthermore, the candidates must take at the same time, "an all embracing examination" which is moreover "difficult", carrying "every subject taught from the first class of high school education up to and including the last"; it is therefore necessary for such candidates to make "an infinitely greater effort" than similar students who acquire their diplomas "year by year". In addition, and without mentioning the "entry fee", they appear before "an examinations board consisting of five strangers"; consequently they find themselves "in a very different psychological situation from a child who passes his examinations annually and piecemeal before his own teacher". This is why recourse to the Central Board remains an "exception".
      The Applicants point out that their thesis in no way implies, in their view, that States are bound, by virtue of the Convention and the Protocol, to grant to colonies of foreigners residing on their territory the same facilities as to their nationals. Unlike Italian or Polish, "French is in Belgium a national language"; as "full" citizens, the French-speaking Belgians are entitled to be treated on a completely equal footing with their compatriots.
      
      3. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission
   3. The Belgian Government is of the opinion that the legislation in dispute in no way infringes any of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked by the Applicants on the question under consideration. While its principal argument is that the Articles are totally inapplicable (cf. supra), it presents several subsidiary arguments.
      First, "scholastic emigration", whether accompanied or not by "some mixing of education", enables people to avoid the refusal of homologation. "French-speaking pupils resident in Flanders may attend official, or subsidised and recognised French-language secondary schools in the Brussels conurbation" or in Wallonia, "where they can obtain legally valid secondary leaving certificates"; it is moreover open to them to obtain the same result by "starting their secondary education in a Dutch-language school in Flanders" and to complete it "in a French-language school" in Brussels or Wallonia. It is true that the declaration of the head of the family is "checked" in the Brussels urban district (cf. supra). However it emerges from the provisions in force and in particular from a Royal Decree of 30th November 1966, that as long as the falsity of the declaration by the head of the family is not finally established, the child may continue to attend the school " to which he was admitted"; his education there will be deemed to be in accordance with the language law and will "in no way" prevent "homologation of his leaving certificate".
      As for the French-language secondary schools in Flanders, they issue only certificates which may not be homologated. Moreover the majority of their pupils are girls whose parents wish them to "be occupied", "from the age of twelve to the age of eighteen", "in a decent and proper way" and who therefore "do not need any diploma". Besides, non-homologated certificates are not without value: employers are sometimes satisfied with them. It is true that the holders of such certificates cannot enrol for higher-level technical education, higher-level artistic education, higher-level teachers' training, higher-level secondary commercial education and higher commercial studies, nor are they able to sit for a legally recognised university degree, not to take up any career that requires a diploma, in particular "a career in an official recognised branch of the legal profession - Bench, Bar or notary" - "a career in the medical and para-medical professions", "a career in teaching", "a career as a Government engineer" or a career in the higher grades of the civil service. On the other hand, "university education leading to a non-recognised degree", except for commercial studies, "falls entirely outside the field of application of the language laws". Non-recognised degrees, "awarded by universities under conditions which they are completely free to decide for themselves", are of considerable interest to those who wish to pursue "a career in industry and commerce" or a "para-legal or technical" career. Some of these, for example, the degree of "Doctor of Laws (non-recognised)", are the "twin brothers" of those "met with in legally-recognised education". For others, as numerous as they are varied, there are no equivalent legally-recognised degrees.
      Therefore, refusal of homologation constitutes a mere "inconvenience" and
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1. [align=left]
   1. Therefore, refusal of homologation constitutes a mere "inconvenience" and not a "penalty" in disguise. As it does not concern "the right to organise teaching and to enjoy the natural results thereof", it is in no way "equivalent to a denial of the right to education"; it does not affect the Applicants "in the field of education but in the field of its consequences". Then, the Convention it says, contains "an unfortunate lacuna", which is not to be explained as "inadvertent"; it does not contain "a single Article on the exercise of a profession". While not wishing to take this "somewhat exegetical" argument to extremes, the Belgian Government is of the opinion that it is necessary to show "a certain prudence" in a sphere not expressly covered by the Convention.
   2. Moreover, the holders of non-homologated certificates may acquire a legally-recognised diploma by sitting - in the language of their choice - an examination before the Central Board. The Belgian Government does not deny that "the number of failures" before the Central Board is "considerably greater" than "at the end of secondary education in official or recognised schools", but such a situation seems to it to be "inevitable". This is so because "pupils who sit the examinations in the last (...) year of secondary school form a group that has survived severe elimination as a result of the examinations and of the failures of the five previous years". On the other hand, pupils who come before the Central Board "have not been so severely selected" and "a by no means negligible number" of them "are wholly or partially self-taught". The syllabus of the examination in question is so planned as to give to candidates "a reasonable chance of success". As regards the entrance fee payable, the cost is "modest".
   3. The Belgian Government further emphasises that as a general rule, "a university graduate, no matter what the language of his degree, may settle anywhere in the country and take up any profession for which his degree fits him". In Belgium, admission to only certain professions - "the Bench, the civil service, education provided, aided or recognised by the public authorities, etc" - is dependent on a command of the language of the region; it is possible "to have no knowledge at all of Dutch and yet to practise medicine, law or engineering in Flanders". What would happen if the Belgian State were to agree to the homologation of school leaving certificates issued in Flanders by French-language private schools but at the same time introduced legislation that stipulated certain requirements relating to the knowledge of languages for the exercise of any liberal profession? According to the Government this would create an "unhealthy situation": on the one hand, one "would be encouraging all French-speakers living in Flanders to send their children" to such schools; on the other, one would be denying these children entry "to the careers to which they aspire", as such establishments would not give them a sufficient grounding in the necessary language. In the Government's view, such legislation would be "much more severe, much stricter and more dishonest" than the provisions now in force and "would constitute a veritable trap". Yet it would violate neither "the letter nor the spirit of the Convention". A fortiori, the laws now in force being "more liberal and wiser", respect the Convention and the Protocol.
   4. The Belgian Government furthermore lays great emphasis on one of the consequences which would, in its opinion, follow the adoption of the Applicants' thesis. It recalls that the aim of the Convention and the Protocol is to protect Human Rights and not those of the citizen, for the rights and freedoms safeguarded are secured to all persons within the jurisdiction of the Contracting States, "including foreigners and even nationals of non-signatory States", and this "without discrimination on any ground such as national origin" (Articles 1 and 14 of the Convention) (art. 1, art. 14). From this the Government infers that "the Applicants cannot invoke before a European judicial authority more extensive rights than those to which foreigners are entitled": "can it be said that a foreign minority in the Belgian coalmining area may demand that funds be provided for education in their own language and that the leaving certificates in respect of such education be automatically recognised?"
   5. Finally "legitimate grounds" justify the "penalty of denying homologation". Far from wishing "to liquidate the French-speaking ruling class" in Flanders, the legislature has succeeded in its attempt "to avert certain crises which threatened" and in "creating in Flanders an intelligentsia with a good knowledge of Dutch", capable thereby of accomplishing its "social duty".
   6. The Belgian authorities have had as their point of departure two facts: the presence, in Belgium, of "two large population groups speaking separate languages and concentrated in different areas" and "the almost complete absence of a Dutch-speaking élite", which is to be attributed to the "phenomenon of francisation" which has taken place in "the Flemish area". Wishing to "calm certain long-standing conflicts", Parliament originally thought in terms of a "bilingual solution"; this solution was however abandoned as it did not permit the creation of a "truly Dutch-speaking élite". It was thus led to adopt a territorial system, judging that "the best way to ensure collaboration" and "harmonious co-existence" between the two large "language communities within a unitary national State" was "to give predominance, not exclusive rights, for freedom is guaranteed in each part of the country, to the regional language". It was especially considered that "in the interests of the Flemish community" and to remedy "serious social and political tensions", it was necessary to encourage "attendance at Dutch-language schools" and "not to give help and encouragement to educational institutions" whose effect was to encourage "francisation of the élite". How could a Dutch-speaking élite in Flanders have been established without "halting" or "checking" this "phenomenon of active francisation"? In "disapproving" the second of these purposes while "endorsing the first", the Commission is adopting a position which is scarcely coherent.
   7. In the view of the Belgian Government, the education provided "in unilingual French-language schools" in Flanders "was good in all subjects except one: Dutch language". Now, in the view of the Belgian legislator, and in opposition to the implicit opinion of the Commission, the fact that a school in Flanders "provides only an inadequate knowledge" of Dutch does affect "the quality of the education" in question. The Convention and the Protocol in no way require a State "to recognise the validity of diplomas issued by a particular educational establishment, once such education is satisfactory from the technical point of view"; neither do they forbid a State from making such recognition "dependent upon certain linguistic qualifications", and "from reserving" a number of functions or professions "for those with the technical and linguistic knowledge necessary to guarantee their suitability". According to the Belgian Government those who wish "to play a leading part in the country" should "desire the social and cultural advancement" of the people and, consequently, acquire "a sufficient knowledge of the language" of the latter.
   8. The "legitimate" purpose thus followed has been achieved; "if, after 1932, many Flemish parents preferred to send their children to Dutch-language schools, the sole reason was, and the main reason still is", that in Flanders only certificates issued by such schools are homologated. "From that time, the Flemings" have a "numerous upper class" and "Flemish separatism has disappeared".
   9. In short, "the Belgian idea" involves no "unlawful discrimination against minorities". This is not peculiar to Belgium: in several other countries, such as Switzerland, the principle of non-discrimination is equally "subject" to "the principle of regional homogeneity in educational matters".
   10. The Commission confirmed before the Court the opinion which it had formulated on this point in its Report.
       Refusal of homologation does not infringe Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) taken in isolation. It is true that the "right to education" comprises, at least "in Belgium's present economic and social circumstances" and "in those of other countries that have signed the Protocol", "the right to draw full benefit from the education received" (cf. supra). Article 2 (P1-2), however, leaves the State "free to establish or subsidise schools or to abstain from so doing" (cf. supra). From this it follows that "the Belgian State is not obliged by the Article (P1-2) in question to grant homologation of leaving certificates issued by any schools whatsoever, whether or not they comply with the requirements of the language legislation". According to the Commission, "the fact that the legislation attacked strikes at education given in a language which is generally spoken by a large part of the population and is considered as one of the national languages may appear particularly hard". "However, the fact is irrelevant from the point of view of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2)", which "authorises no distinction between nationals of a particular State and foreign nationals". Two members of the Commission reached the same conclusion by different reasoning, but three others see the measure in dispute as "a restriction which prevents the individual from deriving the profit normally inherent in the education which he receives" and consequently as "a partial denial of the right to education". The Commission draws the attention of the Court to those various individual opinions.
       Nor is there any violation of Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention on the point in question: the possibility of "grave unjustified disturbances caused in the private or family life" of the Applicants is relevant "only to primary education" and the question of homologation does not arise at this level (cf. supra).
       The Commission finally examines the question as to whether or not the refusal of homologation complies with the requirements of Article 2 of the Protocol and Article 8 of the Convention, here read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2, art. 14+8). It finds no such non-compliance as regards Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention and the second sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) but does find it with respect to the first sentence of Article 2 (P1-2).
       In its endeavours to discover "the general effect of the legislation attacked", the Commission is of the opinion that the latter has "neither the object nor the effect of ensuring the qualifications thought necessary for the exercise of certain functions or professions", "nor indeed of ensuring linguistic knowledge". Where such knowledge "is required, a candidate has to show that he possesses it": "it is not enough for him to have complied with the linguistic legislation during his studies". In this connection, the Commission observes that "a knowledge of the regional language is required" only for the exercise of certain "liberal professions" ("the Bench", "the Civil Service", "public and State-recognised education", etc), that the study of the second national language is almost everywhere optional in Belgium, especially after the entry into force of the Act of 30th July 1963 and that "a pupil undergoing an examination before the Central Board does so in the language of his choice". From this it concludes that it is "possible" at least in theory, "to obtain legally recognised university degrees without having learned the second national language". It adds that degrees conferred by the four Universities in Belgium, the bilingual Universities at Brussels and Louvain, the Dutch-language University at Ghent and the French-language University at Liege, permit their holders, "anywhere in the Kingdom and without giving evidence even of a rudimentary knowledge of the language of the region", to "occupy any of the public offices and practise any of the professions for which knowledge of the regional language is not specifically required". "Conversely, a Belgian national who has received a secondary education which is not in accordance with the linguistic legislation", and then "obtained a non-recognised degree at a university","is not free to practise anywhere in Belgium" - except by taking "a full examination before the Central Board" - "to hold the offices or practise the professions for which his studies have prepared him", even if he has "a perfect knowledge of the two national languages".
       In reality, in the Commission's view, the legislation in dispute aims at the "assimilation of minorities against their will into the sphere of the regional language"; it does not seek solely to protect "the Dutch language and culture in Flemish areas" and to "halt the spread of the French language in those areas". On this point, the Commission in particular recalls "that homologation is refused by reason of the mere fact that (...) the pupils' secondary education has not been in accordance with the linguistic legislation", "even if only for a year or a few months". It further emphasises "that a pupil who has received French education in Wallonia may obtain homologation of his certificate, unlike a pupil who has received absolutely identical French education in the Flemish region". The first may then "obtain a legally recognised degree", whereas the latter, even if he successfully pursues the "same studies" at university must be satisfied with a non-recognised ("scientifique") degree, unless "he has passed a full examination before the Central Board in the language of his choice". It is true that these rules apply equally to "schooling completed in the Dutch language in an establishment in Wallonia". In practice, however, they hardly touch education given in Dutch: although "before the 1932 Acts there were French secondary schools in the Flemish region", "no one has stated before the Commission that there were at that time Dutch secondary schools in Wallonia". Here again the "parallelism" invoked by the Belgian Government "works solely against the French-speaking population".
       This being so, eight members of the Commission express the opinion that the refusal to grant homologation infringes the right to education as it is jointly defined by Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention.
       It is true that "neither the Convention nor the Protocol guarantees access to any functions or occupations whatsoever". The first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) nevertheless enshrines, "in spite of its negative formulation", "the right of every person to education". Now, in our age, education is not "in the immense majority of cases", an "end in itself". "Those who receive instruction (...) do so not disinterestedly, but with the intention of preparing themselves for the work" upon which they propose to embark on completion of their studies. To the Commission, "the right to education would be only an illusion if it did not include the right to draw full benefit from education", and Article 2 (P1-2) would be "meaningless" if it were accepted that it did no more than guarantee the right "to a purely humanist education". "Any legislation which, while not denying anyone the right to education, were to lay down discriminatory measures with regard to the advantages that individuals or groups of individuals may derive from their education", including "the exercise of those functions or professions to which the education in question normally gives access", would not, in the Commission's view, violate "Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) considered in isolation" but would infringe "that Article read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the Convention", for it would not "secure enjoyment of the right to education for everyone without discrimination".
       In Belgium, certain advantages are reserved to the holders of homologated certificates. In order to determine whether or not this constitutes a "discrimination" incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14), the Commission considers it necessary to examine closely the "reasons" behind the refusal to grant homologation. In its opinion what are involved are not "academic considerations" (cf. supra), nor administrative reasons. On this last point, the Commission admits that the Belgian State does not inspect "schools which do not observe the linguistic legislation". It observes, however, that "it would be of no use for a school which did not comply" with the linguistic legislation on all points to "declare that it intended" to submit to being inspected: by reason of Section 24 of the Act of 29th May 1959, "the State would refuse to act on the declaration". According to the Commission, this refusal also involves "discrimination contrary to Article 14 (art. 14)": "there would be no serious administrative or financial difficulty in arranging for the inspection of schools in Dutch-speaking areas which provide education in French" or of "Flemish schools in the Walloon area". In actual fact the measure in dispute constitutes one of the means of implementing the policy of the Belgian State which certainly wishes "to encourage the Dutch language and culture in Flanders, but which has exceeded this aim by trying to prevent the spread or even the continuance of the French language in that region".
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   1. It is true that "pupils with certificates not eligible for homologation" have the possibility of obtaining "wholly valid diplomas by taking a full examination before the Central Board". This "way round" the refusal of homologation is not, however, of much value. The Applicants have shown, and the Belgian Government does not dispute the fact, that the examination in question "is a very dangerous reef to negotiate" and "has serious drawbacks and risks". In any case, the Commission does not consider "the institution of the Central Board" to be a "remedy" worthy of the name, since the refusal of homologation is based solely on the linguistic irregularity of the education followed. In reality the "obligation" to appear before the Central Board represents a "hardship" which is not warranted by "any regard to the general interest" and which, "moreover", does not confer "any privilege on the young Dutch-speaking people who are exempt from it". In any event, those "circumstances which may on occasion mitigate" the effects of the refusal of homologation (Central Board, scholastic emigration, with or without "mixing of education", "non-recognised degrees" etc.) cannot, in the Commission's opinion, remove the violation, if violation there be, resulting from this refusal.
   2. The Commission does not overlook the fact that "fairly large foreign colonies" exist in Belgium and that the law allows them to establish schools where education is given in "Italian, Polish or any other language".
   3. The objection raised on this point by the Belgian Government (cf. supra) "is not conclusive", however. It does not take into account the fact that the refusal of homologation applies to certificates issued not only "by schools which do not observe the whole of the linguistic legislation" but also "by private schools recognised and subsidised by the State, or even by official schools, when it is not apparent from the certificates" that their holders "have complied personally with the requirements of the language Acts throughout their secondary schooling". Moreover, the refusal of homologation does not have "the same consequences" for "Belgian citizens" as for "foreign nationals". "The latter, even if they hold valid diplomas issued by the Belgian authorities, do not have access to public office or to certain professions" which are reserved to Belgian nationals.
   4. In any case, the Government's argument lacks foundation in "relation to Article 14 (art. 14)". "In the light of this Article (art. 14)", an examination must be made as to whether "enjoyment of the right to education is secured to all without discrimination". Now the Commission believes that, in conducting this examination, it "cannot ignore the fact" that "in Belgium", French "is one of the official languages" and "the maternal or usual language of nearly half" of the population. In its opinion, the Belgian State could "rely upon very good grounds for not recognising education" received in Belgium "in Italian or Polish private schools": it would have first to introduce "school inspection" which would entail "appreciable administrative difficulties and financial burdens". "Moreover", the Belgian State "might have good reasons for considering it undesirable that a completely foreign language should take root in its territory". From this the Commission concludes that "from the standpoint of Article 14 (art. 14)", "there may be valid reasons, eliminating the idea of discrimination, for not granting to the schools of foreign communities the same treatment" as to schools "established by Belgian nationals for Belgian nationals in which education is given in one of the national languages". In the present case, the only "relevant" comparison is that between the legal situation of the "French-speaking community" and the "Dutch-speaking community".
   5. Consequently the refusal of homologation appears to be "irreconcilable with Article 2 of the Protocol read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the Convention". In so far as it applies to certificates covering schooling not in conformity "on all points" with the "legal requirements with regard to the language of instruction", this refusal amounts to a "hardship based solely on language and thus contrary to Article 14 (art. 14)". The granting of homologation in no way constitutes a "privilege" or a "favour", but "merely the confirmation of regular schooling", "the normal consequence of education received in a secondary school, provided of course that the school satisfies the law's academic requirements". By depriving "certain citizens", "for purely linguistic reasons" and for reasons "quite extraneous to actual educational requirements", of the benefit of education received, the Belgian State has established a "discrimination" incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14).
   6. Four members of the Commission, however, find no violation on the point under consideration: the Commission draws the attention of the Court to their dissenting opinions.
      1. 4. Decision of the Court
      <LI value=42>The provisions of the Acts of 1932 and 1963 which provided for or still provide for the refusal of homologation of certificates relating to secondary schooling not in conformity with the language requirements in education, infringe neither the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) nor Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention considered by themselves.
      The right to education, which is enshrined in the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) is not frustrated by the Acts criticised. In particular the right to obtain, in conformity with the rules in force in each State and in one form or another, the official recognition of studies completed has not been disregarded by these legal provisions. Leaving this right intact, they merely subject its exercise to the express condition of an examination before a central board. This examination does not constitute a test of excessive difficulty. It appears from the documents produced and the statements made before the Court that the candidate may take it in two stages and in the national language of his choice and that any candidate who fails may present himself before the Central Board as many times as he wishes. Moreover, the percentage of failures recorded before the Central Board at the higher level of secondary education is in no way abnormal. Moreover, the entrance fees for the examination are very small.
      As regards Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, invoked by the Applicants before the Commission, it is impossible to see how the system of the Central Board for secondary education could entail a violation of the right to respect for private and family life. Here again, the Court finds that there is no violation.
      It remains to be decided whether the legal provisions referred to in the sixth question are compatible with the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the Convention.
      This question must be examined in connection with the criteria which the Court has set out above for determining whether a given measure is of a discriminatory character within the meaning of Article 14 (art. 14).
      On this matter, the Court first notes that the legislature, in adopting the system in issue, has pursued an objective concerned with the public interest: to favour linguistic unity within the unilingual regions and, in particular, to promote among pupils a knowledge in depth of the usual language of the region. This objective concerned with the public interest does not, in itself, involve any element of discrimination.
      As regards the relationship of proportionality between the means employed and the objective aimed at, greater difficulties are encountered in finding the answer.
      One of them lies in the fact that the children who, as holders of a certificate that is not admissible for homologation for purely linguistic reasons, must take an examination before the Central Board, are in a less advantageous position than those pupils who have obtained a school leaving certificate which is admissible for homologation. However, this inequality in treatment in general results from a difference relating to the administrative system of the school attended: in the first of the two cases mentioned above, the position usually is that the establishment is one which, by virtue of the legislation in force, is not subject to school inspection; in the second, on the other hand, the certificate is necessarily issued by a school which is subjected to such inspection. Thus the State treats unequally situations which are themselves unequal. It does not deprive the pupil of the profit to be drawn from his studies. The holder of a certificate not admissible for homologation may, indeed, obtain official recognition of his studies by presenting himself before the Central Board. The exercise of the right to education is not therefore fettered in a discriminatory manner within the meaning of Article 14 (art. 14).
      It is not, however, impossible that the application of the legal provisions in issue might lead, in individual cases, to results which put in question the existence of a reasonable relationship of proportionality between the means employed and the objective aimed at, to such an extent as to constitute discrimination.
      During the oral hearing before the Court, the Commission put forward the case of a refusal of homologation in respect of a pupil who, from the beginning of his secondary studies, had received an education not in conformity with the linguistic legislation, even if only for a few months, and whose later studies took place in accordance with the provisions of this legislation and this in an establishment subject to school inspection. Even in a case of this kind, where it is not reasonably possible to speak of an evasion of the law, the legal provisions complained of would prevent the award of a certificate admissible for homologation.
      Such a result, to the extent to which it may follow from the application of the law, must cause serious doubts as to its compatibility with the right to education - the enjoyment of which the Convention and the Protocol secure to everyone without any discrimination.
      In the present case, however, it has been neither established nor even alleged that there is such a result with respect to any one of the children of the Applicants.
      The examination of the case thus envisaged does not prevent the Court from concluding that the legal provisions referred to in the sixth question are not, in themselves, in contradiction with the requirements of the Convention.
      FOR THESE REASONS, THE COURT,
   7. Holds, by eight votes to seven, that Section 7 (3) of the Act of 2nd August 1963 does not comply with the requirements of Article 14 of the Convention read in conjunction with the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (art. 14+P1-2), in so far as it prevents certain children, solely on the basis of the residence of their parents, from having access to the French-language schools existing in the six communes on the periphery of Brussels invested with a special status, of which Kraainem is one;
      
      Reserves for the Applicants concerned the right, should the occasion arise, to apply for just satisfaction in regard to this particular point;
      
   8. Holds, unanimously, with regard to the other points at issue, that there has been and there is no breach of any of the Articles of the Convention (art. 8, art. 14) and the Protocol (P1-2) invoked by the Applicants.
      Done in French and in English, the French text being authentic, at the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, this twenty-third day of July, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight.
      
      
      R. CASSIN
      President
      
      H. GOLSONG
      Registrar
      
      MM. A. Holmb&#228;ck, G. Maridakis, E. Rodenbourg, A. Ross, T. Wold, G. Wiarda and A. Mast, Judges, considering that Section 7 (3) of the Act of 2nd August 1963 respects the Convention and the Protocol (cf. point I of the operative provisions of the judgment), avail themselves of the right under the terms of Article 51 (2) (art. 51-2) of the Convention and Rule 50 (2) of the Rules of Court: MM. Holmb&#228;ck, Rodenbourg, Ross, Wiarda and Mast, Judges, attach to the judgment the statement of their collective dissenting opinion: MM. Maridakis and Wold attach thereto the statement of their individual dissenting opinions.
      
      In addition, MM. G. Maridakis and T. Wold, Judges, while concurring with point 2 of the operative provisions of the judgment, which concerns the other questions referred to the Court, attach to the judgment the statement of their individual opinions, basing themselves on reasoning different from that of the majority.
      
      
      R. C.
      H. G.
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