“European programmes need to be equally accessible to all
European citizens, regardless of their socio-economic
background. My first goal is to make Erasmus+ the Number
One programme of inclusiveness”, said Milan Zver.
The new Erasmus is, on the one hand, bringing big new
initiatives like the European Universities Network, the
Centres of Vocational Excellence and the DiscoverEU
activities (based on the successful Interrail pilot
project). On the other hand, it will improve and upgrade
existing components of the programme: improved language
learning opportunities, facilitated mobility for school
children, mobility for sports coaches and young athletes,
more focus on small-scale partnerships, and virtual and
blended learning.
“I am proud of our work on the legislation for the next
Erasmus+ Programme. We proposed many solutions for
simplifications, we made the programme much more fair and
inclusive and we have the broad support of other political
groups. When we enter into negotiations with the Council
and the Commission we will have a strong Parliamentary
mandate which we will need if we want to keep the
traditional activities of Erasmus+ in the fields of
education, training, youth and sport, adding the three big
new initiatives (DiscoverEU, European Universities, Centres
of VET excellence) at the same time. The Parliament will
have to fight for the tripling of the overall budget. This
is why it is extremely important to have strong support
from other political groups”, said Milan Zver.
The EPP Group secured a number of important issues: “We
have ensured that the funds for higher education mobility
and the Jean Monnet Programme are not cut. At the same
time, we have increased the budgets for VET, adult
education, schools and sports. We also reinforced the idea
of European added value. We secured the traditional parts
of Erasmus+ whilst refusing some proposals to limit
DiscoverEU and the EU Universities programmes before these
initiatives even truly start”, concluded Milan Zver.
Erasmus has been the EU’s flagship programme for education,
training, youth and sport since 1987. Hundreds of thousands
of young people have enjoyed living in another country,
seeing how different and diverse the EU is. This makes
Erasmus the most popular European programme and one of the
EU’s success stories.
