The BBC has obtained figures showing the sections lost £218,000.

The Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) has had to subsidise the losses with income from exams.

Now some members of its new board of directors have called for an inquiry into the running of the European sections.

Range of services

However Councillor Gareth Williams, Chairman of the board, refused to be drawn on the detail of the losses, saying only that he was happy that the company made a profit of £53,000 overall.

Cllr Williams, Chair of Education for Swansea, added that the board, which met on Monday for the first time since May's council elections, was looking forward to a working relationship with the new National Assembly.

The WJEC says its European arm does innovative work

The WJEC was set up in 1948 as a consortium of local education authorities. It is as a company limited by guarantee, owned and controlled by the 22 unitary councils in Wales.

It provides a range of educational services including examination syllabuses, marking, and access to vocational schemes.

It also provides Welsh-medium resources and support for the Curriculum Cymreig (the Welsh curriculum), producing Welsh and bilingual computer-related resources, as well as a national training programme for teachers of Welsh.

'Network of partners'

Its European arm, where the losses were incurred, co-ordinates Wales-Europe education and training projects and links services with partner regions through the European Unit. It is charged with supporting the development of the European dimension in Education in Wales.

The WJEC says the unit has built up a network of partners, both within Europe and Wales, and that it pilots innovative trans-national projects in the fields of education, vocational training, curriculum development and language.