The European court of justice, non-national education and the emergence of a European consciousness

Education is pivotal to the idea of European constitutionalism, being connected to such no-tions as identity, citizenship and civic participation. A European dimension to national education curricula and freedom to study anywhere in the European Union (EU) would be conducive to the formation of a European identity, with consequences for constitutional development. The EU is, through a range of programmes, encouraging educational mobility among its students, though legal and institutional realities operate to restrict mobility at times. This article examines several provisions of the European Community Treaty and secondary legislation from which the Community derives competence in the field of education. It concludes that while the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has expanded EU competence in this field, it has provided unequal access to non-national education by its rulings. The article proposes a general right of movement as a means of resolving the functional allocation of the right to access to non-national education