European legislation re funding

[2tirednot2fight]

just heard about some little known legislation that means parents can request all education funding and fully arrange education services. I am not referring to direct payments legislation but longer standing European legislation/directive.

Does anyone have any useful links where I could gather further info please?

I know of no such legislation sorry. At EU level, law is either may way of directives or regulations. Regulations have immediate impact, directives have to be implemented by national law and states are free to choose the method as long as they meet the aims.

But, the EU only has a supporting competence for education because it is a sensitive issue of national sovereignty. This means that the EU can carry out actions to support, coordinate or supplement Member States' actions. This means it cannot generally legislate on education issues.

There may be what's called 'soft law' declarations, action plans, or guidance issued in this area but it is not binding. I am not aware of anything but that is not to say it doesn't exist!

Could you be thinking of a case or even an ECHR case? Sometimes matters come before the courts on other issues of competence, e.g. freedom movement etc but the substance matter may relate to education.

At EU level, law is either made by way of directives or regulations

Thinking laterally, could it be something to do with how the existence of free schools affects whether education is now 'goods and services' and subject to the various laws on fair competition /restrictive practices / procurement?

When the NHS was opened up to allow private and voluntary providers to run certain services, this had implications for whether these regulations applied. Social care services have been subject to contracting regulations for ages too.

IA and other smart lawyers, does this mean anything to you? I just wonder if education might be following the same route now...

A health, education and social care plan is going to be made as an integrated whole, the regs already apply to the health and social care bits, its all state-funded but the programme can be provided by non-state organisations

so it might be a bit odd to argue that the education bit is exempt from the personal budgets, which (in my wholly un-informed but firmly held view were only brought in as a sop to the EU fair competition rules anyway)

IA, does this translate as meaning health is also a supportive competence area

General health improvement is a supporting competence too.

What you are talking of Mareeya, I think, is the questions: if NHS reform is opening the NHS up to EU competition/procurement law, then does education reform open the education system up to that too?

That is a very interesting idea but I cannot see we have reached that situation yet. I have very little experience in this area!

Thank you all for your comments I plan to look at this closely. I already have a response from an MEP that indicates his view that the EU has not been given powers by the member states to legislate for education. However I am going to check this further and will post anything I find.

Thanks again I hope everyone will continue to post if anything comes to light.

2tired, i think your MP is misinformed. He might say the same about health, but there are definite EU influences, as our free-market mechanisms mean the NHS is basically a large and powerful state-owned brand (rather like British Airways used to be, but without the customer service training ).

Thanks Mareeya, lol about the customer service training not being there, in education I don't think the SEN world has even heard of customer service

The EU has 3 different forms of competence: exclusive, shared and supporting.

The MEP is right. There is no power to legislate in the field of supporting competences. So, for example, whereas he EU can issue legislation on the single market or police cooperation, it cannot try and harmonise member states' education systems or legislate for them.

However, as I mentioned, Member States practices in the field of health or education, may infringe may still infringe EU laws. So, if you have a law in the UK banning students from the Czech republic from coming to the UK, it may infringe one of the four freedoms of the EU: the freedom of movement of peoples.

That is the distinction.

Star, re health and social care, the BMA says worry, Herts solicitor says don't worry . I was hoping this blog would have something, but sadly not

Sorry guys, I wasn't being clear. I meant he's wrong in saying that the subjects aren't linked just because there's no direct legislation.

IA what are the other three freedoms and could the freedom of movement of people's relate to the internal environment of a school such that refusal to allow a disabled child access to certain parts of a school or certain activities also infringe the freedom of movement of people's or is that in relation to freedom between member states only?

Four freedoms: free movement of goods, capital, services, and people. This is all tied to the single market and movement across the internal borders between states.

Can you be more specific about what you were told and who told you? Might be helpful in narrowing this down!

The EU also has a Charter of Fundamental Rights which sets out a variety of provisions BUT this only applies when states are acting within the scope of Union law and the Union cannot legislate for education.

[Scratching head to think of what else this might mean.]