''Françoise Gravier v City of Liège'' (C-293/83) was an important

freedom of movement Freedom of movement, mobility rights, or the right to travel is a human rights concept encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country,Jérémiee Gilbert, ''Nomadic Peoples and Human Rights' ...

case in European law concerning non-discrimination in access to vocational education. It held that an education institution may not discriminate against students in terms of the fees they charge on grounds of nationality. The judgment did not concern maintenance grants from the government. In order to claim those, the

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...

's (ECJ) decisions in ''

R (Bidar) v London Borough of Ealing ''R (Bidar) v London Borough of Ealing, SS for Education and Skills'' (2005C-209/03is an EU law case, concerning the free movement of citizens in the European Union. Facts Danny Bidar, was French, and lived with his grandmother in the UK from Aug ...

'' and '' Förster v Hoofddirectie van de Informatie Beheer Groep''European Court of Justice 18 November 2008, Case C-158/07, , , ''Jacqueline Förster v Hoofddirectie van de Informatie Beheer Groep'' (IB-Groep). (See , the ruling based on this judgment) state that a person can be required to have lived in a country for five years prior to a claim.

Facts

Françoise Gravier, a French national, applied in 1982 to study cartoon drawing at the '' Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts'' in the Belgian city of

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

. Gravier was requested to pay a fee of 24,622

Belgian franc The Belgian franc ( nl, Belgische frank, french: Franc belge, german: Belgischer Franken) was the currency of the Kingdom of Belgium from 1832 until 2002 when the Euro was introduced. It was subdivided into 100 subunits, each known as a in Dutch ...

s (approximately 610 euros) as a ''Minerval'' (enrolment fee) which was only demanded from foreign students. After refusing to meet the fee, Gravier was rejected by the ''Académie'' and her Belgian study visa was revoked.

Case

Gravier argued that the fee breached Article 7 of the 1958

Treaty of Rome The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was sig ...

(discrimination on the grounds of nationality) and Article 59 (equality in the provision of services). Gravier took the City of Liège to the tribunal of first instance in Belgium. The court ruled that the matter concerned European Community law and that a judgment could not be produced until two points of law had been ruled on by the

(ECJ) in Luxembourg. The case was tried in 1985.

Judgment

On 13 February 1985, the ECJ ruled that: It also ruled that learning cartoon art counted as " vocational training" and thus qualify for the same legal status. Gravier v. City of Liège is acknowledged as a precedent in European case law. The ECJ further ruled that, although higher education was outside European laws and regulations, the access to it was not. As a result, non-discriminatory access had to be applied by member states for access to professional education. With the later case in 1988, '' Blaizot v. University of Liège'', the ECJ decreed that any education at universities can be counted as professional education.

Notes

References

* *Sacha Garben, ''EU Higher Education Law: The Bologna Process and Harmonization by Stealth'' (2011) *Dr. Walter Demmelhuber, ''The European Court of Justice advancing Student Mobility'', CEDEFOP, Vocational Training Nr. 21
PDF
*

External links

*European Court of Justice 13 February 1985, Case 293/83, , ''Françoise Gravier v City of Liège'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gravier v. City of Liege Court of Justice of the European Union case law Belgian case law 1985 in case law 1985 in Belgium History of Liège Education in Belgium