The Education and Youth Council is expected to adopt two partial general approaches at its meeting in Brussels on Monday 26 November: one on the European Solidarity Corps and the other on the Erasmus programme. Overall, the changes made to the two proposed regulations are relatively minor.
The two texts do not settle the question of the amounts available for these programmes; these two questions are discussed in the context of the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12140).
As regards the Erasmus programme, the draft agreement retains three main areas of action with specific objectives: education and training, youth and sport. The main change concerns the name: whereas the Commission proposed to replace Erasmus+ by Erasmus, as it was before 2014, the draft general approach is referred to as Erasmus. Thus, Member States hope to raise public awareness that this programme is not only about the mobility of higher education learners, but also about trainees, apprentices, pupils, sport, etc.
As far as the 'European Solidarity Corps' programme is concerned, the changes are also relatively technical. The main innovation is Article 12 on the budget, in which Member States give guidance on how the budget should be allocated between the different activities. The text refers to a maximum of 20% for activities at national level. He also mentioned the following breakdown: 86% for voluntary activities (solidarity), 8% for internships or jobs and 6% for voluntary work (humanitarian aid).
The draft texts can be found at: https://bit.ly/2OXhESs and https://bit.ly/2TAdV0L. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)