The European Commission has sent letters of formal notice to Austria and Belgium alleging restrictions of access to their higher education systems. The case against Austria is more serious, as it concerns non-compliance with a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in 2005. The ECJ found that Austria discriminated against non-Austrian EU citizens by requiring that the holders of secondary education diplomas from other Member States had to prove that they met the conditions governing access to higher education in their home country. If this case is brought to the ECJ, Austria risks the imposition of fines. The case against Belgium concerns a decree of the French Community reserving for Belgian residents a quota of 70 per cent of the places in certain medical schools. The two countries have now two months to respond to the Commission’s concerns.