The lack of such provisions posed challenges in building an administration that reflected the diverse makeup of the ECSC's six founding member states, discouraging potential employees who heralded from outside the jurisdiction in which the institutions were based from relocating with their families.

However, by the spring of 1954, it was apparent that the solution was inadequate, with the school unable to provide a secondary education to its enrolees.

On 12 April 1957, the governments of the six ECSC member states signed the Statute of the European School, which took the form of an international treaty.

[6] Under Article 6 of the Statute, the European School was to have the status of a public institution in the law of each of the contracting parties and was to have legal personality to the extent requisite for the attainment of its objectives.

Article 8 provided that the Board of Governors of the European School was to consist of the "Minister or Ministers of each contracting party whose responsibilities include national education and/or external cultural relations", with the Board able to confer a position to a representative of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, as per Article 27.

Taking advantage of the powers conferred to it by the 1957 Statute, the Board of Governors signed an agreement with the European Patent Organisation - a separate intergovernmental organisation - in December 1975 allowing for the creation, in 1977, of a European School in Munich, Germany for the education and instruction together of children of its staff.

In 1973, the first enlargement of the European Communities saw the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland join, who all likewise acceded to the 1957 Statute.

By 1986, following the enlargement of the European Communities to include Greece, Spain and Portugal and their ratification of the Statute,[6] the Schools were obliged to provide an education to the students of officials originating from the 12 EC member states.

The historical significance of the first European School, founded a mere 8 years after the end of World War II, was not lost on its architects.

[12] This sentiment is echoed in the words inscribed in Latin on parchment and sealed in each of the European Schools' foundation stones.

Without ceasing to look to their own lands with love and pride, they will become in mind Europeans, schooled and ready to complete and consolidate the work of their fathers before them, to bring into being a united and thriving Europe.The Board of Governors is the common executive body of the European Schools, determining educational, administrative and financial matters.

The Budgetary Committee, likewise, gathers finance officials from the EU member states, together with representatives of the European Commission and European Patent Office to examine the financial implications of educational proposals and the budgets of individual schools and of the General Secretariat in Brussels.

While some full-time teachers are seconded by their national governments for a period up to nine years, others are hired locally within the member states in which the schools reside.

The Pupils' Committees of the European Schools are federated via CoSup, an acronym formed from its French title, Conseil Supérieur des Elèves.

It is able to represent common student interests on the European Schools' Joint Teaching Committee and at the Board of Governors.

CoSup meets five times per academic year and utilises a Qualified Majority Voting system, endowing each European School represented a number of votes proportional to its share of the total number of students enrolled across all European Schools.

[15] Each School receives an equal vote weighting for matters concerning the functioning of CoSup, such as its presidential elections, which occur at the last meeting of each academic year.