The administrative court of Lille ordered Wednesday, October 12 the Hauts-de-France region to pay more than 500,000 euros in subsidies to the private Muslim high school Averroès, blocked in early October due to suspicions of the regional council on its financing.
The Region, which had only paid the sums due for 2019-20 after an injunction from the Council of State, immediately indicated that it would appeal to the Court of Cassation.
The region legally required to pay this grant
The regional majority led by the LR boss of the region, Xavier Bertrand, had rejected at the beginning of October a deliberation for the payment of the annual externship package in the amount of 287,000 euros for the 2020/21 school year.
Blaming him in particular for having received funds from a Qatari foundation in 2014, the regional executive has also still not paid the externship package for 2021-22, of a similar amount.
This lump sum, paid to all private establishments under contract with the State, is intended to pay non-teaching staff and to cover teaching expenses.
The Averroès high school, under contract since 2007, therefore took legal action again, as it had already done until obtaining a decision from the Council of State in mid-2021 confirming that the region was "
legally required to pay
" the day school package.
“Transparency of the association”
The administrative court agreed with him in summary proceedings on Wednesday, ordering the region to pay more than 500,000 euros for the externship package within 8 days.
"
The region wants an effort of transparency from the association on its financing
", reiterated its lawyer Me Gauthier Never at the hearing on Tuesday.
Arguing that five inspections had been carried out in high school and college since 2020, including by National Education, the management stressed that this standoff weighed on the education of 450 high school students.
In a press release published on Wednesday, the Hauts-de-France region, determined to exhaust all remedies, indicated that it would again "
appeal in cassation before the Council of State
".
She argued that since August 2021, the law against separatism "
strengthens controls on foreign funding received by any association
".
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Xavier Bertrand had seized the Ministry of Education in 2020 after the publication of the book "
Qatar Papers
" by Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot reporting "
foreign funding
" for this Lille establishment.
The school confirmed that it received a donation from a Qatari non-governmental fund, stressing that it was not illegal.
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