The European Commission’s transport spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen announced at a press briefing on Tuesday 22 November that the Commission was considering the proposal that every 18-year-old European citizen be given an InterRail ticket. She said she hoped an experimental phase would be launched as early as 2017.
“We are presently considering the form this experiment might take”, she went on, indicating that one of the possible options would be to provide additional funding for the eTwinning project, a European communication and cooperation platform for schools.
The experimental phase could be launched in March of next year that would mean that projects could be selected in June and the first journeys made as early as the second half of 2017, we have been told.
For 2017, the Erasmus+ programme has been allocated €50 million more than the proposed budget, with funding totalling €330 million. A temporary deduction, in the amount of around €2.5 million, from this iconic European programme could be made to finance the project.
In October, Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc promised to give consideration to this idea – revised and updated by Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany) – which now has the support of most political groups (see EUROPE 11639). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)