Austria attacks Brussels over student quotas
MARK BEUNDERMAN
07.02.2007 @ 09:24 CET
The new Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer has accused the European Commission of "jeopardizing the Austrian health system" by demanding that Vienna lift its quotas on the amount of Germans studying medicine in Austria.
Mr Gusenbauer, a social democrat who took office in January, told Austrian and German media ahead of his first visit to Berlin on Wednesday (7 February) that his government will resist Brussels' push for equal access of all EU students to Austria's medical faculties.
Up to 90 percent of German medical students at Austrian universities return to Germany. (Photo: European Community, 2005)
Austria early last year capped the number of foreign students at its universities at 25 percent mainly in a bid to restrict the number of German students, most of whom return home after their studies leaving the Austrian health system with a lack of doctors.
The commission believes however that the Austrian quotas discriminate against students from other EU states and started legal action against Vienna last month, referring to a 2005 ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which declared earlier Austrian restrictions illegal.
"It's about making it clear to the EU commission that it should not rain on our parade," Mr Gusenbauer told Austria's Kronenzeitung, vowing unity over the issue with Germany which he said had agreed to the student caps.
"Vienna and Berlin have been and are still in agreement on the quotas scheme, and it is preposturous that some doctrinaires describe something as discriminatory which is not being perceived as discriminatory at all by the governments concerned," he added.
"It is a fact that more than 90 percent of German medical students at our universities return to Germany. It can't be the task of the EU to jeopardize our health care. Those doctrinaires who are pushing for free educational access should broaden their perspective and take into account the effects on health care."
"This is none of the commission's business," Mr Gusenbauer indicated, according to Germany's Die Welt. "It should meanwhile ask itself whether it is not itself contributing to European citizens increasingly turning away from the institutions. Boundaries are being crossed here which should not be crossed."
Schussel criticicism
Brussels on 24 January sent a letter to Vienna stating that Brussels "considers at this stage that Austria has still not complied with the ECJ's ruling and invites accordingly Austria to submit its observations," demanding a reply from the Austrians within two months.
The 2005 court ruling had stated that Vienna "failed to demonstrate that...the existence of the Austrian education system in general and the safeguarding of the homogeneity of higher education in particular would be jeopardized."
Mr Gusenbauer's strong words echo earlier remarks by his predecessor, the conservative ex-chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, who focused his criticism more on the ECJ than on the commission however.
Mr Schussel said "the ECJ…has in the last couple of years systematically expanded European competencies, even in areas, where there is decidedly no [European] community law."
"Suddenly, judgements emerge on the role of women in the German federal army, or on access of foreign students to Austrian universities – that is clearly national law", he added.
Belgium, Denmark
Meanwhile, similar caps on foreign students in Belgium are also on the commission's radar screen.
Belgium last year adopted a decree by which it introduced, for a certain number of medical studies, a quota of 70 percent for students who have their residency in Belgium - a system wich according to the commission has a "discriminatory effect on EU nationals."
"Belgium failed to justify the introduction of this system," the EU executive said last month.
On top of this, Denmark - which has many Swedish medical students in its universities - is looking at what it can do to stop the influx from across the Oresund strait, with Danish science minister Helge Sander saying last year that "We have to find a solution at the EU [level]."
