62 "RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT Applicants above all attack other aspects of the system applicable to Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Rhode-St. Genèse, Wemmel and Wezembeek-Oppem (cf. supra); nevertheless, they consider as abnormal a "strictly territorialist" provision which "prevents children living on the other side of the street, that happens to lie within the administrative area of another commune", from attending the schools in question. The Applicants from Alsemberg, Beersel, Antwerp, Ghent, Louvain and Vilvorde are more directly affected. Thus the son of one of the counsel representing the Applicants from Antwerp, Ghent and Vilvorde (Applications Nos. 1691/62, 1769/63 and 2126/64) lives at Tervueren, which is situated in the Dutchlanguage area but which is contiguous with Wezembeek-Oppem; the entry into force of the Act of 2nd August 1963 obliged him to withdraw his children from a French school at Wezembeek-Oppem, situated 150 metres from his home, and to send them every day to Brussels, about a dozen kilometres away. The Applicants consider that in this respect they are victims of violations of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention, and in particular of a discrimination based on residence. In the case of Louvain as in that of the six communes on the outskirts of Brussels, the discriminations denounced by the Applicants are not based on "financial or administrative" reasons; they reflect a will to enshrine the "rights of the ground" to the detriment of individual freedoms and to "liquidate the French-speaking minorities" by compelling them to "become flemicised" or to "move away". 3. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission 30. The Belgian Government maintains that the legislation in dispute in no way conflicts, on the two points under consideration, with the requirements of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked by the Applicants. While its principal argument was that the Articles were totally inapplicable (cf. supra), it presents several subsidiary arguments. It emphasises, in substance, that Section 7 in fine of the Act of 30th July 1963 and Section 7 § 3-B of the Act of 2nd August 1963 depart from the territorial principle only for very special reasons: namely to respond to the "needs of the bilingual University of Louvain in the matter of teacher’s training" and to provide in the six communes assigned "a special status", certain facilities for the "fairly large French-speaking minority" which exists there. These justifications explain at the same time the restrictions to which the exceptions are subject. Why should the legislature permit the "concessions" made to French-speaking persons at Louvain and in the communes on the outskirts of Brussels to become "the starting point for francisation of the Flemish populations in these and neighbouring communes", when its "avowable" and "legitimate" purpose consists