"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT 37 of its language" which is "one of the national languages of Belgium". It may no doubt happen that "children may encounter serious difficulty in learning Dutch and that their parents may be totally ignorant of the language", but the Applicants have not cited "any case of this kind". Two members of the Commission are of the opinion that "the legislation in dispute" has "effects contrary to Article 8 (art. 8)", but "the Commission has not sufficient information to be able to judge in concreto whether the Applicants, or some of them at least, are victims of these effects"; the Commission draws the attention of the Court to their dissenting opinions. Finally, the Commission seeks to determine whether, on the point under consideration, there is a violation of Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 2 of the Protocol (art. 14+P1-2) or Article 8 (art. 14+8) of the Convention. After emphasising that "a language system for education, organised on a territorial basis", is not necessarily contrary to the Convention, as it "might be justified" by "administrative, financial or other considerations", it examines in detail the legislation criticised by the Applicants with a view to discovering its "general effect". In its view, this study shows that the legislation in dispute "has neither the object nor the effect of ensuring the qualifications thought necessary for the exercise of certain functions or professions, nor indeed of ensuring linguistic knowledge". It proves also that "the language reforms" aimed "initially at removing the abuses which had occurred in the nineteenth century under the system of absolute linguistic freedom, the whole brunt of which had been borne by the Dutch-speaking population", but that the Acts of 1932 and 1963 had "reversed the position". "The parallelism established between the Flemish and Walloon regions" is "not complete, at least under the 1963 Acts"; further still it operates in practice "against French-speaking people living in the Flemish region" while "it hardly affects the Flemish population of Wallonia". "In so far as it is real" it further has the effect of "introducing distinctions in each of the two regions" which "are not affected by their reciprocal character". "The loopholes provided for the French-speaking population", in particular scholastic emigration, entail "inconvenience and dangers" which make them "ineffective". "What is more, certain provisions in the Acts concerned" exceed their official purpose: "they can only be explained by a desire to halt the spread of the French language in the Flemish zone", indeed to assimilate the "French-speaking population of Flanders", against their will, "into the sphere of the language of the region". Although "The Commission readily understands the attachment of the Flemish population to their language and culture and their desire to preserve and develop them", and although "a policy which reflects such aspirations therefore appears quite legitimate in itself", it cannot consequently "find it illegitimate that French-speaking people living in Flanders should seek to protect their own language" which "has been established there for centuries". Without disputing the fact that the Belgian Government is