At its meeting on 13-15 April 2021, the Board of Governors decided to set up an expert group to prepare a proposal for the future management of the canteens in the European Schools.
The move followed a discussion at our School’s Administration Board on 1 February 2021 (President feedback from School Administration Board 01/02/2021 | APEEE Luxembourg 1 (apeeel1.lu) and other meetings within the European School system. Our School Management had written to the Parents’ Association in December 2020 claiming that, according to a decision taken by the Board of Governors in 2008, the Parents’ Association would have to take over the running of the school canteen when the current contract ends in September 2022.
Working through the Interparents network, the Parents’ Association challenged this interpretation of the Board of Governors’ 2008 decision. As a result, the European Commission undertook a legal analysis of that decision, which concluded that the decision was unclear and could not be used to compel the Parents’ Associations to run the canteens.
The expert group has been tasked with preparing a new decision of the Board of Governors to address concerns relating to financial and legal liability for the canteens and to report back by the next meeting in December 2021 or at the latest by April 2022. In the meantime, the Board of Governors decided that the solutions currently in place in the Schools can be continued.