Comments on: Germany, Poland, Britian and the EU

By: abrianna

abrianna — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:30:51 +0000

Brunet,

Thanks for responding. I went to the offical EU site and clicked here:

and here is what it says about the Council of Europe:

“HOW THE EUROPEAN UNION WORKS
A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO THE EU INSTITUTIONS

Institutions

* European Parliament
* Council of the European Union
* European Commission
* Court of Justice of the European Communities”

According to the EU’s official site, the Council of the European Union is part of the EU. Once you click on the above link, in the middle of the page are blue tabs. Click on the blue tab that says “Institutions” and that is where you will find the above information.

Certainly, people fleeing one country to homeschool in another should know what could await them down the road. This is why what happened to Poland is so important-they joined with the understanding that they would still retain control over moral issues, yet when they tried to exercise that control, they discovered they had been deceived.

The EU is involved in education. From http://europa.eu/pol/educ/overview_en.htm

“Education policy as such is decided by each EU country, but together they set common goals and share best practice. In addition, the EU funds numerous programmes which allow its citizens to make the most of their personal development and the EU’s economic potential by studying, training or doing voluntary work in other countries.”

In other words, the policies that are set have to have the same goals as other countries in the EU. That means the EU does regulate the educational system, not the indvidual countries. Notice that the EU also funds numerous programs-the entity that holds the money is the same one that controls the policies used for that money.

I still maintain that if you are fleeing oppression from homeschooling in one EU country, it is wisdom to flee to a country not part of the EU.

By: abrianna

abrianna — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:06:00 +0000

Peggy,
Thanks for responding. I too know that traditionally the UK has been Britian, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. I thought it odd that the first site I went to had the UK defined as only Britian and Northern Ireland, omitting the Scotland and Wales. I found the official site of the EU and they do have Scotland and Wales included.

From everything I have seen, Southern Ireland seems not to be included in the EU?

We will have to agree to disagree though about Germany being in trouble. German homeschooling parents already went to the highest court of the EU, where they were told that the State can deny homeschooling.

By: Penny

Penny — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:22:51 +0000

You know, I appreciate the sentiment, but some of your facts are mistaken. Different EU countries can have different laws, but the EU constitution calls for certain human rights to be upheld by member states – hence the Poland issue, which I admit I hadn’t heard of. Frankly, it is Germany that could be in trouble. They seem to be the odd ones out as far as prohibiting homeschooling goes, AND a parent’s right to choose their child’s mode of education is arguably one of those human rights.

On another note, Scotland and Wales are part of Britain, part of the UK, and consequently also part of the European Union. Scotland has it’s own laws to some extent. In Britain, homeschooling appears to be less regulated than it is in France, where I homeschool my daughter.

By: brunet

brunet — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:01:10 +0000

The Human Rights Court has nothing to do with the EU but with the Council of Europe.
The EU does not have any competence regarding the educational system, it belongs entirely to the member states.
The status of homeschooling is very different from one member state to another (from legal to illegal with different kind of in-between situations with some or a lot of restrictions).
I am sorry to say that this kind of badly informed posts does not help at all the homeschoolers/would like to be homeschoolers in Europe.

By: Germany, Poland, Britian and the EU

Germany, Poland, Britian and the EU — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:41:13 +0000

[...] Abrianna wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSome German homeschoolers have been fleeing to the UK in order to continue homeschooling. “Jonathan Skeet, who is British-born, said that he, his wife and five children, aged between two and 11, were driven from Lüdenscheid after the authorities froze their bank account, removed money from it and confiscated their car.” This is exactly what communist countries do to political dissidents. I hope these people are only making their stay in the UK brief, because the EU will come after them. I do not know when this will happen, but it will happen The UK is part of the EU and in the EU, individual nations are not allowed to have laws differing from the EU. Poland and the Baltic states are already learning this lesson: “When Poland joined the EU in May 2004, it did so on condition that “no EU treaties or annexes to those treaties would hamper the Polish […] [...]