Communication : Reform of the administrative structure of the European Schools

Background and further information:

The mission of the European Schools (ES) is to provide a multilingual and multicultural education at the nursery, primary and secondary level (including the European Baccalaureate diploma) to the children of the European Union institutions' staff members. As such, the ES contribute to the attractiveness of the European civil service.

In recent years, the European Schools system (ESS) has been facing major challenges when it comes to its financial management. The Court of Auditors (CoA) and the Internal Audit Service (IAS) have both identified some shortcomings in their annual reports related to the period of 2013 to 2015 reporting years. The CoA considered in its 2013 and 2014 reports that it could not guarantee the ES' consolidated accounts were free of material misstatement. However, in its 2015 and 2016 reports the CoA did not reveal material errors in the final consolidated financial statements.

The shortcomings in the ES financial management do not jeopardise the legality and regularity of the payments made by the Commission to the ES, since the payments are highly regulated. However, the Commission, as a major contributor to the ES budget, has been keen to ensure that the required guarantees are given on the sound financial management and on the regularity and legality of the ES' operations.

In its report on the 2015 general EU budget discharge, the European Parliament (EP) pointed out some weaknesses in the financial management of the ES, mirroring the findings of the CoA and of the IAS. Consequently, the EP called on the Commission to play its full role in all areas of the ES management and asked for a communication to the Parliament and the Council on how the administrative structure of the ES could best be reformed.

The present communication therefore aims to set out the Commission's views on the ES administrative and financial structure and the ongoing reforms undertaken in these domains.