European School discrimination hearing results expected within a month

A group of parent campaigners who launched a discrimination case against the European School II in Luxembourg are to receive the results in under a month.

The European School Non-Discrimination Campaign (ESNDC) submitted its case for a redistribution of the pupils and students across the two European School sites in Kirchberg and Mamer on Monday.

Following the hearing, however, ESNDC spokesman Gordon Mackenzie was not optimistic.

“I went away at the end feeling that the panel were against us and that our chances of winning were much less than 50%,” he explained in a statement, adding that the campaigners had done everything in their power to put forward their points.

The case was brought by a number of parents to the European School complaints board following the opening of the 217.5 million euro European School II in Mamer in September. Parents criticised the way that learners were redistributed across the two sites, with the ESNDC claiming that the new distribution was discriminatory on the grounds of language, nationality, ethnicity, property status and sex.

During Monday's hearing, the campaign group presented a series of personal letters from parents who are dissatisfied with the reorganisation of the schools.

According to Mr Mackenzie the "Chambre de recours", where the complaint was heard, rules against European Schools in less than 1 percent of cases.

The chairman of the Chambre said that a decision would be made within a month.