30% cap on foreign pupils, Brussels monitors without opening an infringement procedure

The European Commission has stated that it will follow the parliamentary review of decree-law 170/2026, the Italian rule introducing a 30% cap on non-Italian pupils per class. The news currently comes from a single source (Sbircia la Notizia, which reports the European Commission’s response and statements from the Ministry of Education and Merit); no independent confirmation is currently available. This is a story that this morning’s edition had not yet reported.

In its response, the Commission invoked the prohibition of discrimination based on nationality, but did not announce the opening of an infringement procedure nor declare the Italian rule unlawful. It is an intermediate position: Brussels is watching, invoking a general principle of EU law, but not formally intervening on the measure itself.

The Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara confirmed that the government will proceed with the measure. The decree is currently under review by the Senate’s 7th Committee, the parliamentary stage accompanying its process toward possible conversion into law.

The 30% threshold concerns the maximum number of non-Italian pupils allowed in a single class. The available material does not allow for a detailed reconstruction of the arguments behind the various positions that have emerged in the public debate, but it clearly records the stance taken by the Commission: no infringement procedure, accompanied however by an explicit reminder of the principle of non-discrimination, which remains applicable to any national rule on the matter.

Brussels’ choice not to open an infringement procedure thus leaves the matter entirely at the national level, where the measure continues its process in the Senate. The passage through the 7th Committee will be the next relevant moment to determine whether the text will undergo changes before a possible final conversion, or whether it will proceed in its current form.

It remains to be seen whether the Commission’s position, for now limited to a reminder of principle with no procedural consequences, will have any follow-up in the coming months should the decree actually be converted into law without substantial changes to the text currently under review in the Senate.