BRUSSELS – The European Court of Justice has found Belgium guilty of discriminating against non-Belgian students.

The court said on Thursday that it was unacceptable of the French-speaking community to require non-Belgian European Union nationals to take an entrance exam for higher education courses in medicine, dentistry, veterinary or agricultural sciences.

Their Belgian peers had faced no such test and the court ruled that meant there was discrimination on the basis of nationality.

Since the European Commission took the case against Belgium to court, the French speaking community has changed its policy.

This means new non-EU students should no longer face discrimination.

But the Commission still wanted the court to establish Belgium’s legal responsibility towards students who had fallen foul of the old rules.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news