The city of the euro is failing Europe, according to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.

After decades of promises, Frankfurt still hasn’t identified a site for a new school to cater to the children of the Eurocrats who work there. That’s left the present European School, overwhelmed by rising demand for its services, on the brink of a crisis, Lagarde warned her host city Wednesday.

At the inauguration of temporary container classrooms on Wednesday, Lagarde said it was “embarrassing” that she was not cutting the ribbon on a permanent campus. “We can’t move from container to container to potato field,” she said.

The potato field is a reference to an adjacent agricultural plot to which the school hopes to move its sports facilities. The current facilities will have to make way for more containers, as the school is expected to continue growing. But unless something changes quickly, the school will have to stop enrolling pupils by 2028.

The European School Frankfurt is part of a network of schools backed by the European Commission, set up so that the children of officials in EU institutions around the bloc can access a guaranteed standard of education in a language suitable for them, free of charge. Outsiders who wish to send their children there can pay up to €8,194 a year in fees.

The ESF’s campus in Praunheim, in the north of the city, has been bursting at the seams for years. It was always meant to be an interim home and was initially designed for 900 students, but as the ECB more than doubled in size to include a banking supervisory arm the school now hosts more than 1,600. Student numbers are expected to rise further to over 2,200 by 2032.

And pressure on the school is now higher than ever: the ECB’s more than 5,000 staff are now no longer alone, because Frankfurt has attracted two more EU institutions in the meantime: the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), with some 200 staff, and — as of this year — the Anti-Money Laundering Agency, which will have a complement of over 400 by 2027.

Before the school opened back in 2002, the German government agreed with local authorities that the city of Frankfurt would provide land free of charge, while federal authorities covered building costs. Federal authorities have long pressured the city to stop dragging its feet and provide a spot.

In its pitch to host AMLA, Frankfurt had once again promised a new and larger European school. But unless a solution is found by 2028, the kids of AMLA staff may have to go to local schools: The European school can only use the site of the new containers until the end of 2028, after which the city will reclaim it for a new housing development.

AMLA Executive Board member Simonas Krėpšta, who was in the crowd listening approvingly to Lagarde on Wednesday, told POLITICO that his institution has “high expectations” that the city will deliver. He stressed the importance of decent schooling for AMLA to attract staff. “We trust German authorities to find a solution,” he said.

Sylvia Weber, a city councillor responsible for real estate and new developments, raised hopes that the search for a new site, now well into its third decade, may soon come to an end. “I am confident to be able to give you answers by the end of the year,” Weber said, pointing to the so-called Festplatz am Ratsweg in the city’s east end as a possible option.

However, locals have already protested those plans, warning it will drive out a popular biannual fair, change the face of the district and push up rents. Local politics and interested parties, ranging from sports clubs to plot gardeners, have also scuttled various other attempts to seal a deal in recent years.  

So perhaps it is hardly surprising that those attending the inauguration, from school staff, students and parents’ association heads to ECB staff, expressed doubts that Frankfurt will finally get its act together and designate a new plot for the school.

Christian Linder, who represents the European Commission on the board of governors of the European Schools, warned that the impasse threatens more than classrooms. “This is very important not only for the school, not only for EU institutions and agencies in Frankfurt, but for the European Union itself,” he said.