Student beats Belgium’s medical school barrier in EU court

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Belgium cannot apply its nonresident medical school quota to students like Axel Dris, who completed substantial schooling and earned his secondary diploma in Belgium while living across the border in Luxembourg. Dris passed Belgium's 2022 medical entrance exam but was shut out because nonresident certificates were capped at 30%, and his ranking fell outside that cap.

The court accepted that Belgium can protect public health by trying to retain doctors locally, but said residence alone cannot be the only test of a genuine connection to the country, especially when years of schooling say otherwise. The ruling requires Belgium to show actual evidence of a healthcare risk rather than assume every nonresident graduate will simply leave.

The case now returns to Belgium's Council of State, which rejected Dris's initial emergency request back in 2022 and must now apply the European court's reasoning to finally decide his admission.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.