DutchNews.nl - Holland in EU dock over student grants

Home

Opinion

Holland in EU dock over student grants

Thursday 08 October 2009

The European Commission is to take the Netherlands to court over its insistence students spend at least three of the past six years in the Netherlands to qualify for financial help with studying abroad.

The commission says this residency rule goes against European rules on the free movement of goods and people. 'Migrant workers and their families should enjoy the same social advantages as nationals,' the commission said on Thursday. 'Study financing awarded to students for maintenance is a social advantage which should be granted without discrimination.'

The Netherlands has refused to change the regulations because it says it wants to stop the student grant system being abused.

Subscribe Newsletter
Print-version
News archives

Readers' comments

another blanket EU law that's not in the interest of any country. Still, as the Prime Minister was so happy earlier this week with the Irish people voting for a treaty to give the EU even more power I fully expect the government to bend over and take this one with a smile.

By Mark | October 8, 2009 3:49 PM

Hello! "stop the student grant system being abused"? It is being flagrantly abused, and neither the IB, stuidielink nor the police are interested in stopping the abuse ... they have said so publically a few months back, it is just too much of a bother, so they allow it to happen. Similar to the stolen bike policy, if you can get away with fraud, the please do so. If the government policed payments now, there would be ample cash to pay all those eligible.

By jaycee | October 8, 2009 6:35 PM

Comments have been closed for this article.

News