The European Commission has announced an investment of more than €3bn for the 2020 round of the EU’s Erasmus+ education programme.
The investment, which represents an increase of 12% by comparison to 2019, will go towards developing and supporting opportunities for young people across the EU to study and train abroad. The Commission’s call for proposals for 2020 also includes provision for 35,000 opportunities for students and staff from Africa to participate in the Erasmus+ programme under the Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs; as well as supporting the launch of a second pilot for the European Universities initiative, which aims to create transnational partnerships between educational establishments in the EU in order to create the ‘universities of the future’.
Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, said: “I am very pleased that in 2020 the European Union is set to invest more than €3 billion in Erasmus+. It will allow us to open up more opportunities for young Europeans to study or train abroad, enabling them to learn and develop a European identity; and it will help us to take the European Universities initiative forward, showing our continued investment in the European Education Area. I am proud to see higher education institutions form strong new alliances, paving the way for the universities of the future, for the benefit of students, staff and society across Europe.”
In addition to funding higher education study programmes, the Erasmus+ investment will include continued support for the ErasmusPro initiative, which enables vocational learners and apprentices to train abroad. Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Marianne Thyssen said: “The new Erasmus funding opportunities for the vocational education and training sector will strengthen the vocational education and training community; bridging sectors, regions and countries. Reinforcing ErasmusPro will make those bonds still tighter while giving more vocational education and training learners more opportunities.”
