"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT 41 with the first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol (art. 14+P1-2) or with Article 8 (art. 14+8) of the Convention. B. As to the second question 8. The second question concerns the issue of whether or not in the case of the Applicants, there is a violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and of Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention, or of any of those Articles, "in so far as the Acts of 1963 result in the complete withdrawal of subsidies from provincial, commune or private schools providing, in the form of non-subsidised classes and in addition to the instruction given in the language prescribed by the linguistic Acts, full or partial instruction in another language". 1. The Facts 9. By a circular of 9th August 1963, the Minister of National Education and Culture drew the attention of "heads of educational establishments" which comprised so-termed "transmutation classes" to the fact that by reason of the Act of 30th July 1963, they must "proceed as from 1st September 1963, to the suppression of all nursery classes (whether the language employed is Dutch or French) and of the first year of primary education (whether the language employed is Dutch or French)", "the other years" having to be "suppressed progressively year by year" and "no new pupils" being permitted to be "enrolled in these classes". A ministerial circular of 29th August 1963 supplementing the preceding one and intended for "the organising authorities of independent educational establishments", stated the following: "(...) In accordance with the declaration made during the debate on the Bill concerning the language regulations in education, subsidies will be withdrawn from schools which maintain, as unsubsidised classes, transmutation classes which must by law be abolished. If a school continues to provide nursery classes, or first-year primary school classes in a language other than that of the region, subsidies will be suspended in respect of the entire establishment." These circulars would seem to be based on Section 1 of the Act of 30th July 1963 in conjunction with Section 4. Section 1 states that "official nursery, primary and secondary schools, teacher’s training, technical and artistic colleges and special educational establishments and similar private establishments subsidised or recognised by the State, shall be subject to the provisions of this Act". As regards Section 4, it provides, inter alia, that "the medium of education is Dutch in the Dutch-speaking region" and "French in the French-speaking region".