Stipends for students at EU universities

Simon Busuttil, through The Times of October 3, has followed up on an issue which I raised in respect of the above matter last year. Being a true MEP, loyal to his constituents, he has not hesitated to bring an important decision by the European Court of Justice to my attention and publicly through The Times, to the attention of all parents of students in a similar predicament as my daughter, for which I thank him.

As he succinctly explains in his article headed Stipend For Studies Abroad, the European Court of Justice has found in favour of a German couple who were discriminated against by their own government and were denied tax credits against their school fees for the simple reason that they chose to send their children to a private school outside Germany and in another EU member state.

In this context I wrote to Mario Schiavone, chairman of the Maintenance Grants Board on July 25, 2006, making exactly the same arguments which the ECJ has now pronounced itself on. On August 1, 2006 I received an e-mail from Mr Schiavone, and I quote it in full, word for word.

"The law governing students' maintenance grants states clearly which students are eligible to receive a maintenance grant. In the case of university students, the eligible students are those attending the University of Malta in Msida. The law makes now no concessions for students following courses in foreign universities unless the period they spend in such universities is not part of a scheme approved by the university and the credits such students obtain from foreign universities are accepted by the University of Malta as valid for the course the student has started and will continue at the Malta University. The Board has no authority to change this law."

As a result, my daughter was denied her maintenance grants and stipends starting October 2006 when she took up her tertiary education in Scotland.

It is now clear that in bringing into force legal notice 372 of 2005, the Ministry of Education has failed to safeguard the principles upheld by the EU in favour of Maltese students, that is the free and unrestricted movement of persons within the EU for education and employment. Through the said legal notice, the Minister for Education has discriminated against Maltese students who chose to take up university studies outside Malta by denying them their stipends and maintenance grants for the simple reason that they chose to exercise this freedom, which is one of the four freedoms granted to Maltese citizens when I, together with the majority of the Maltese population voted for membership of the EU.

I, together with the parents of many students in the same situation, now urge the minister to take immediate steps to reverse this injustice and ensure that all Maltese students who choose to study in universities outside Malta are treated in all respects exactly as students attending the University of Malta and all financial assistance and benefits are given to them by right and not as some political pre-election gimmick. It is also to be noted that the lost stipends and maintenance grants unjustly withheld since the publication of this absurd legal notice are also to be reimbursed.

I trust that the minister will act quickly in this matter and tolerate no intransigence at any level of his ministry so as not to force us parents of these students to take our case before the ECJ simply to get the same result as the German couple who successfully argued the same principles before the court.