The European Commission (EC) published the 2018 annual report on Erasmus+. Negotiations on the next programme are still not finished.
The Erasmus+ Annual Report 2018, which covers the fifth year of the EU funding programme for education, training, youth and sport, shows that the programme supported 95’000 organisations to carry out 23’500 projects, and it supported the mobility of over 850’000 students, apprentices, teachers, and youth workers.
Developments in 2018 include:
- an increased focus in projects on the development of innovative curricula, boosting new technologies and digital competences;
- the launch of the Opportunity Traineeship Initiative;
- increased support to “ErasmusPro”, the long-duration mobility experiences for vocational education and training learners with a strong work-based component;
- work on the digitalisation of administrative processes associated with Erasmus+, in particular regarding higher education, including the Erasmus+ app.
In a public speech on 28 January during an Erasmus+ stakeholder conference, Mariya Gabriel, the Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “Erasmus+ has become for our younger generations a gateway to Europe and to the world. It is one of the EU’s most tangible achievements: uniting people across the continent, creating a sense of belonging and solidarity, raising qualifications, and improving the prospects of participants”.
The EU institutions still have not finalised the negotiations of the next Erasmus programme for 2021-2027. The EC is seeking to double the programme budget to €30 billion and make the programme even more inclusive, more international and accessible to people from a diverse range of backgrounds. Two of the major open questions to be decided are the scope of the programme, incl. the flagship initiatives – European Universities, Vocational Centres of Excellence, DiscoverEU – (depending on overall programme budget) and the programme governance. The budget will depend on the result of the ongoing discussion on the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027.