EU education ministers agree on their future Erasmus+ position and exclude partial association for countries that have been part of Erasmus+ in the past.
The negotiations on the future Erasmus+ programme 2028-2034 reached another important milestone: On 11 May 2026, the EU education ministers adopted a so-called Partial General Approach (PGA) which is their official position on the Commission’s proposal for the next Erasmus+ programme. This PGA will constitute the basis for the EU Member States (Council of the EU) to enter into interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament. Together, they have to find an agreement and adopt the legal basis establishing the next Erasmus+. The European Parliament’s rapporteur for Erasmus+ has presented his draft position on 20 May 2026. After internal negotiations, the Parliament plenary is expected to adopt it in October 2026. Only then the official negotiations begin.
What have the EU Member States agreed on for Erasmus+? First, they agree to merge the current Erasmus+ programme with the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). Second, they want to establish an additional work programme for the implementation of the programme: A “new action work programme” shall be created annually for all new actions under direct management. The idea behind this move is to have the possibility to adopt the main ‘regular’ work programme without delay, while more detailed and potentially controversial discussions on new actions could take place. Concretely, the new action work programme could be rejected or held up without jeopardising the normal implementation of Erasmus+. And finally, the third relevant element is that the new opportunity to partially associate to Erasmus+ would be explicitly available only for new countries that have not been part of the programme before.
On another note, the education ministers also adopted Council conclusions on teachers in the era of artificial intelligence. The text stipulates a human-centred integration of AI in education systems as well as the importance of addressing digital inequalities (see SwissCore article).
Finally, in a joint letter dated 13 May 2026, the university associations of a number of Horizon Europe associated countries share their views on the future of Horizon Europe. The signatories include the Russell Group, U15 Canada, Universities New Zealand and swissuniversities. The recipients are the Cypriot Research Minister (Council President), Research Commissioner Zaharieva, and Horizon Europe rapporteur MEP Christian Ehler. The letter underlines the eagerness of these four associated countries to “play a full part in Horizon Europe”. The university associations remind the EU of how vital it is for FP10 to “remain attractive to associated countries and meaningfully open to associated-country participation”. Concretely, the letter calls for Pillar 2 to remain research-led and to ensure observer status for associated countries. Secondly, the curiosity-driven, fundamental research role should be preserved in all pillars. And finally, exclusions of associated countries should be kept to a minimum based on equal treatment of all Horizon Europe FP10 countries.