**The EU’s top court has asked Belgium to justify a decree that puts a 30% limit on the numbers of foreign students who can attend medical courses.**The decree, adopted in 2006, applies to enrolment on nine physiotherapy and veterinary medicine courses in the French-speaking part of Belgium.
Before the decree took effect more than 75% of the students on these courses were non-resident - mostly French.
Belgian officials say this caused a risk to public health.
They argued that not enough Belgian medical graduates were serving in the Belgian health system.
The European Court of Justice said there could be a link between the numbers of Belgian health professionals being trained and the quality of healthcare provided in Belgium - but the authorities would have to prove it.
The European Court says the 30% limit set by the decree amounts to “indirect discrimination”.
If the number of non-resident applicants exceeds 30% the students are chosen by lottery.
‘Prove health risk’
Under EU law indirect discrimination can be justified in certain cases, but the national authorities have to prove that the legislation is appropriate and proportionate.
The case against the decree was brought by 63 non-resident students. The Belgian Constitutional Court then asked the European Court for guidance on the decree’s compatibility with EU law.
To keep the decree in place, the judges ruled, the authorities in Francophone Belgium would have to provide “objective, detailed analysis, supported by figures” showing that “there are genuine risks to public health”.
Data would need to show for example how many non-resident medical students went back home after graduation and how many Belgian medical graduates opted to work in Belgium.
The judges said Belgium should also examine whether there were adequate incentives for medical graduates to take up healthcare jobs in French-speaking Belgium.
The court said there were no grounds to argue that foreign students imposed an excessive financial burden.
French students in Belgium generally have French bourses to cover their expenses or fund themselves by getting a loan, an official at the Catholic University of Louvain told the BBC.
The student welfare official, Anne-Michelle De Jonge, said only students with at least one parent resident in Belgium would qualify for a Belgian grant.
In 2005 the European Court ruled against Austria over restrictions on foreign students’ access to Austrian higher education.
Austrian law stipulated that foreign students could only study at an Austrian university if they could prove that a university in their home country would accept their grades.
Austria was found to be in breach of EU law, which enshrines the principle of freedom of movement for students.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.