AUSTRIA:The European Commission will suspend legal action against Austria over restrictions it places on foreign students attending its medical schools.
The issue is hugely sensitive in Austria, where the authorities fear being swamped by German applicants for the limited number of medical and dentistry places on offer.
In the run-up to today's EU summit, Vienna had threatened to insist that a special protocol be added to the Reform Treaty enabling it to keep a student quota system introduced in 2005.
This system enables Austrian medical schools to reserve 75 per cent of the estimated 1,500 medical places for their own nationals. EU students are offered 20 per cent and students from outside the Union can take up the remaining 5 per cent.
The commission has for years argued that the restrictions faced by EU students are discriminatory and a breach of EU law. It won a case against Austria at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and was threatening to seek financial penalties.
But in a last minute manoeuvre to prevent any disputes at the summit, commission president José Manuel Barroso said it was preparing to suspend its legal action. He said Vienna would have to provide details on the case before it could be closed but hinted that a resolution was near.
The issue has prompted a major public relations headache for the commission in Eurosceptic Austria.
"For sure this was hurting the EU's reputation here," said Prof Manfred P Dierich, vice-rector of the University of Innsbruck, one of the most popular colleges among Germans. "People just don't understand why we should accept students from outside Austria."
The decision to suspend the legal action, principally on political grounds, could prompt other countries to introduce restrictions and call into question the principle of free movement for students within the Union.
Several states, such as Belgium, have raised similar problems with places being allocated to students from their larger neighbours - in this case France.