On 9 May 2020, the European School, Mol and the Joint Research Centre, Geel of the European Commission will both celebrate their 60th anniversary with an open day at the European School, Mol.

The first European School was founded in October 1953 in Luxembourg on the initiative of the European Coal and Steel Community. Consequently, the Luxembourg School became the first official European School in April 1957 following the signing of the Treaty of Rome that led to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) – now European Union - and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in March 1957. The Euratom treaty foresaw the establishment of a Joint Nuclear Research Centre (JNRC), which later became the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The success of the first European School in Luxembourg in educating children of different mother tongues and nationalities prompted the EEC and Euratom to replicate the creation of European Schools in other working sites of European Officials. The Euratom treaty explicitly referred to the creation of a Central Bureau of Nuclear Measurements (CBNM) in Geel that later became the JRC Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), renamed, JRC-Geel in 2016.

Since the official start in May 1960, JRC-Geel emerged from specialising on activities that focussed on neutron data measurements for nuclear safety and security to developing other areas of competencies and work, including biotechnology, food and feed safety, food fraud detection, healthcare, nanotechnology and threat detection. Overall, the JRC has evolved from being a specialised nuclear research centre to being the science and knowledge service of the European Commission. JRC-Geel is one of the six sites of the JRC. Likewise, in 1960, the European School Mol was created. The first baccalaureate educational programme was held in 1966, consisting of three pupils, one in each of the existing sections. During the school year 2018-2019, there were 73 baccalaureate pupils in four sections - German, French, English and Dutch. In September 2019, the European School, Mol welcomes 685 pupils (nursery, primary and secondary) spread into four language sections (English, French, German, Dutch).

In celebrating the joint 60th anniversary, several events are planned to be held in 2020 of which information will be available on our websites.