Countries watch EU court rulings against student discrimination

By Jan Petter Myklebust. The European Court of Justice, or ECJ, of the European Union has been ruling against discriminatory practices regarding student financial aid for the children of migrant workers, and regarding discounted public transport fares. But the European Students’ Union has warned that the grant system in several states might be at risk.
In the case of Elodie Giersch and others v Luxembourg, on 20 June the court ruled that three European Union (EU) citizens were entitled to support because their parents worked in Luxembourg. The students could not be discriminated against on the basis of nationality.
“While stating that Luxembourg legislation which excludes the children of frontier workers for entitlement to financial aid for higher education studies pursues a legitimate objective, the court holds that the current system goes beyond what is necessary to attain that objective.”
The court explicitly said that the objective of increasing the number of Luxembourg citizens with a higher education degree could be “attained using less restrictive measures”. Read...