The European Commission is preparing on Monday 27 March to set out an alternative to InterRail. However, rather than the free ticket for all 18-year-olds that was spoken about for a time, the initiative will be bolted on to the eTwinning programme and will offer 5,000-7,000 young people selected a “travel cheque”.
“There was never a formal proposal to the Commission that all 18-year-olds be given free InterRail tickets. It was an idea put forward by one MEP”, said a Commission spokesperson. “But the Commission has always stated its support for the idea and has been working on it for the last six months”, she added.
In September of last year, in response to the state of the union speech by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the leader of the EPP Group called for InterRail tickets offering young people free travel so that they could “discover the beauty and diversity of Europe for three weeks over a two-year period”.
According to our information, the Commission has only €2.5 million available, from eTwinning, when the estimated cost of free tickets for all 18+-year-olds was €2 billion per year. The proposal, to be presented on 27 March, will be for a travel cheque for between 5,000 and 7,000 young people aged 16 and over. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)