Euro MP James Elles is pressing for the European School at Culham near Abingdon, to be retained as a centre of educational excellence.

Mr Elles is campaigning for the school, the only one in the UK, amid fears about its future because of a fall in the number of children whose parents work at the nearby Culham Laboratory. There are fewer people from abroad working on JET - the Joint European Torus project researching a new source of energy using nuclear fusion.

Mr Elles, Conservative MEP for the South East region, is a member of the European Parliament's committee on budgets that has examined the viability of 12 European schools.

A resolution agreed that European schools foster a strong sense of EU identity and constitute a positive step towards integration.

For the new academic year 2005-6, fees at the European schools will rise by 10 per cent but there will be no change in admission criteria.

Mr Elles said: "The future of the European schools will be debated by the committee and I will be pressing for all of them, including Culham, to be retained as centres of educational excellence."

Meanwhile parents at the Culham school are drumming up support from research institutes, MPs, local councillors and carmaker BMW in a bid to secure its future.

JET project head Jerome Pamela said: "Even if there were only a few JET pupils, the school plays an essential role in attracting the high-level European staff needed at Culham."