Strasbourg, 7 June 2005

Dear Mr B.,

On 27 February 2004, you lodged a complaint with the European Ombudsman against the European Commission, concerning the situation of your handicapped son who is no longer able to attend the European Schools.

The Ombudsman had received a significant number of complaints concerning the same subject-matter. The allegations made in these complaints were very similar to the ones formulated in a previous complaint (reference: 1391/2002/JMA), for which an inquiry was already under way. In the course of that inquiry, a draft recommendation had been sent to the Commission. The Commission was informed of your complaint and asked to submit an opinion on it. The institution chose to jointly reply to all of the complaints concerning this subject-matter through its own detailed opinion in case 1391/2002/JMA. On 29 September 2004, I sent you a copy of the Commission's reply.

On 27 May 2005, following an in-depth inquiry into complaint 1391/2002/JMA, I submitted a special report to the European Parliament, in accordance with Article 3 (7) of the Statute of the Ombudsman. The special report recommends that the Commission should take the necessary steps to ensure that parents of children with special educational needs (SEN children) that are excluded from the European Schools because of their degree of disability are not required to contribute to the educational costs of their children.

As stated in the special report, the Ombudsman considered that the above recommendation should also apply to the additional complaints which he had received involving similar facts and identical allegations, including your own.

Please note that the special report has also addressed your allegation about the alleged failure of the European Schools to provide suitable education programmes for all SEN children of EU officials. The Ombudsman is mindful of the fact that the existing practices among Member States as regards the development of policies for the inclusion of SEN children into mainstream schools appears to show a great deal of variation. Whilst some EU Member States have set out a fully integrated educational system which caters for all needs of SEN children, other European countries still retain a multi-track approach which combines separate mainstream and special needs education systems. The Ombudsman points out that he is not aware of any binding legal provision requiring the Commission or the European Schools to set up a unified system. In the absence of any such legal provision, the Ombudsman cannot conclude that the Commission has failed to act properly by not ensuring that the European Schools provide education programmes for all SEN children of EU officials. The Ombudsman therefore concluded that there appeared to be no maladministration as regards this aspect of the case.

I am enclosing with this letter a copy of my special report in English.

The Statute of the Ombudsman provides for the submission of a report to the European Parliament to be the final step in an inquiry by the Ombudsman. I therefore close the file on the complaint.

The President of the Commission will also be informed of this decision.

Yours sincerely,

 

P. Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS