"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT 51 in issue seem to it to reflect "the Belgian State’s desire to ensure the maintenance of the Dutch-language", indeed to assimilate "minorities, against their wish, into the sphere of the regional language". Eleven members of the Commission, however, believe that this does not result in any discrimination incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14). Seven of them consider it to be "quite proper that the Act should enforce the teaching of Dutch in communes in which the Dutch language is spoken by a large proportion of the inhabitants, sometimes a majority". As regards the absence, at Kraainem, of "official or subsidised French education at secondary level", this does not seem to these members of the Commission to be incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14): "if it is agreed that the State’s refusal to establish or subsidise primary education in French" is not of a discriminatory nature, the same conclusion applies, a fortiori, "to secondary education". It is true that the State draws a distinction, in this respect, in a way detrimental to French-speaking pupils; this, however, represents "a favour granted by the law to Flemish-speaking inhabitants" and "not a hardship interfering with enjoyment by the French-speaking population of the rights guaranteed by the Convention". "According to the information received by the Commission", moreover, there is Dutch secondary education only in three of the communes referred to in Section 7 (1) of the Act of 2nd August 1963, namely, Wemmel, Wezembeek-Oppem and Rhode-St. Genèse. Dutch-speaking parents living at Kraainem must also therefore send their children "to schools at some distance" if they wish them to receive secondary education; this situation does not in any way depend "on the language question". Four other members of the Commission likewise conclude, on different grounds, that the system in the six communes on the outskirts of Brussels is not incompatible with the Convention. On the other hand, one member does not accept this conclusion. He is substantially of the opinion that the Kraainem Applicants remain "although to a much lesser extent than before 1963", "victims of discrimination incompatible with Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention". The Commission draws the attention of the Court to these different individual opinions. 4. Decision of the Court 19. The residence conditions to which the fifth question relates being reserved until later, the special status conferred by Section 7 (3) of the Act of 2nd August 1963 on six communes on the periphery of Brussels, including Kraainem, does not violate, in the case of the signatories of Application No. 1677/62, any of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked by them before the Commission. As is the case with the legal and administrative provisions with which the first and second questions are concerned, the status of the six communes involves neither a denial of the right to education, guaranteed by the first

Select target paragraph3