President.

Question no 47 by Gianluca Susta (H-0216/07)

Subject: European Schools - enrolment

The enrolment procedure for the Brussels European Schools is currently under way, under the supervision of the Central Enrolment Authority.

That authority is, in practice, an empty shell, because it lacks the necessary staff and resources. In particular, it is not collecting the data required for effective monitoring of current and future enrolments (for example, there are no figures on the number of siblings to be enrolled over coming years). Furthermore, not enough information is being provided; among other things, families are not sent any acknowledgement of enrolment.

Would the Commission not agree that, once again, a lack of professionalism on the part of the schools secretariat together with negligence on the part of the relevant DG Admin departments are likely to mean that the Board of Governors' efforts to ensure a transparent, impartial enrolment procedure will come to nothing and, above all, that enrolment policy will not improve in the future?

What steps does the Commission intend to take to prevent the Berkendael enrolment process from ending in failure?

How does it intend to ensure that appeals against enrolment decisions may be lodged with the Complaints Boards, where there are suitable legal grounds for doing so, as from the current enrolment procedure?