EU Commission makes ambiguous response on minority education

In the response submitted on 24 October by Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, Training and Youth on behalf of the EU Commission, it was stated that according to Article 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, Member States are fully responsible for the organisation of their own education systems and that the choice of the language of instruction in a given region remains within the competence of the Member States.

Noting that the EU Commission is working with Member States to promote support for language learning and multilingual diversity within the EU's limited competences, Ivanova noted that the 2019 Council Recommendation on "High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems" (ECEC) promotes early language learning and bilingual schools, especially in multilingual countries and regions, but is not legally binding.

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights prohibits all forms of discrimination and emphasises the EU's obligation to respect cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, Ivanova said, adding that these provisions apply to Member States only when implementing EU law.

In the parliamentary question submitted last July with the initiative of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) and the joint signature of four MEPs, it was noted that the Turkish community in Western Thrace living in Greece has the right to establish and manage its own schools within the scope of its educational autonomy, but the number of bilingual Turkish primary schools is decreasing due to the state's approach.

In the parliamentary question, it was pointed out that there is not even one bilingual minority kindergarten in Western Thrace and that the Greek authorities have not responded to the requests of the Turkish community for private kindergartens, and it was stated that the deprivation of children belonging to the Turkish community from pre-school education in their mother tongue creates inequality in education.

MEPs Vincze, Alfonsi, Dorfmann and Toom asked what steps the EU Commission plans to take to ensure that the right to education of children from the Turkish community is guaranteed in accordance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and EU legislation.