Border student shut out of Belgian med school gets lift from EU adviser

(CN) — A Luxembourg student who went to school in Belgium and passed his medical entrance exam may have lost his shot at studying there for one reason only: He lived just across the border, a European Union court adviser said Thursday.

Axel Dris, the applicant in the case, thought he had done everything right. He studied in Belgium, took the medical entrance exam in 2022 and passed. Still, he was denied the certificate needed to enroll because he was labeled a “nonresident.”

He turned to Belgium’s Council of State, arguing he should be treated like the classmates he studied alongside. The Belgian court then asked the Court of Justice of the European Union whether EU free movement and nondiscrimination rules allow a system that draws such a strict line based on residence.

In a nonbinding opinion, Advocate General Jean Richard de la Tour said that line may be too rigid. “A residence requirement such as that at issue in the main proceedings is more easily satisfied by national citizens, who most often reside in Belgium, than by nationals of other member states, whose residence is often located in another member state.”

Under Belgium’s system, medical students classified as residents are admitted once they pass the entrance exam. Nonresidents must also pass, but if they make up more than 30% of successful candidates, they are ranked by score and only enough are admitted to bring their share back down to that 30% cap. That is where Dris fell short. Despite passing, he did not rank high enough to make it in.

“Such unequal treatment constitutes a restriction on the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the member states,” the adviser wrote.

He did not say Belgium has to scrap limits on nonresident students. Countries can cap access to protect their health care systems and training quality, but they have to show it actually holds up. Judges, he said, should test whether there is a real risk, whether the quota actually helps and whether a less restrictive option could do the same job. That analysis also has to reflect life in border regions, where students often study in one country and end up working across both.

That is not unusual in Luxembourg. The country has long depended in part on universities abroad for medical training, with many students continuing their studies in nearby Belgium, especially after completing the early stages of their education at home.

The opinion suggests residence alone is too blunt a way to sort medical students. Instead, it points to something more concrete: Whether a student has built a real connection to the country through years of schooling, not just where they officially live.

The case has also taken time and money. Dris represented himself at the January hearing, and his family says the legal fight has cost about 30,000 euros, or roughly $35,300, according to Luxembourg media reports.

Dris did not respond to a request for comment.

Marc Debont, a spokesperson for Belgium’s French-speaking community government, said the government was not yet ready to say much. “We need to allow our lawyers time to analyze the opinion issued by the advocate general, which, as a reminder, is not a decision.”

Vassilis Hatzopoulos, professor of EU law and policies at Panteion University, said the opinion “does not break with — but slightly advances — prior case law,” shifting the focus away from whether limits are allowed and toward how they are designed.

He pointed to three areas where it nudges the law forward: Applying criteria from financial aid cases to access to education itself, moving toward more flexible standards beyond residence alone and giving weight to frontier students whose lives and future work often span borders. He added that while the opinion itself is not a breakthrough, it leaves room for the court to go further, particularly on citizenship rights.

The opinion does not decide the case, but it gives Belgium’s top administrative court and, eventually, the European Union’s judges a clear road map. If the court follows it, Belgium may have to redraw the line between resident and nonresident medical students in a way that better reflects life in Europe’s border regions. A final ruling is expected later this year.

Courthouse News reporter Eunseo Hong is based in the Netherlands.