The Erasmus+ programme for education, training, youth and sport achieved excellent results in 2017 and should continue to do so in the coming years, according to a new European Commission report published on 24 January. However, British citizens may no longer be able to benefit from it if the ‘no deal’ were to happen, warns Commissioner Tibor Navracsics.
Encouraging figures
The 2017 annual report on the Erasmus+ programme shows that 800,000 people were able to study, train or volunteer abroad during that year, which represents a record and a 10% increase compared to 2016. The programme also funded cooperation between educational institutions, youth organisations and businesses: a total of 84,700 organisations participated in 22,400 projects.
With regard to mobility abroad, which is a key component of this programme, the Commission has identified a total of 400,000 students, trainees and higher education staff for the academic year 2016/2017. As in previous years, France, Germany and Spain are the three main countries of origin of students, while Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom are the three favourite host countries.
British students in a "bad situation"
The European Commissioner for Education, Hungarian Tibor Navracsics, who presented these results to a small group of journalists, was widely questioned about Brexit. He indicated that the participants in the programme were subject to a legal definition and that it was up to the British Government to decide how to define themselves legally and their relation to the European Union in the future.
When asked about potential emergency measures related to the Erasmus+ programme in the event of a non-agreement (contingency measures), the Commissioner indicated that Erasmus+ was part of a bigger package and that, as a result, it would follow the destiny of all EU programmes. But he pointed out that the European Union had taken Brexit into account in its 2018 call for proposals (year 2019).
This call states that ‘if the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate), or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article II.16.2.1(a) of the General Conditions of the grant agreement’. And the Commissioner pointed out that it is up to the British government to decide whether it wants to offer compensation to all those participants “who can be in a relatively bad condition now”.
When questioned by EUROPE, the Commission refused to indicate whether it intended to provide financial support to European students who would be “excluded” from the United Kingdom.
According to the available data broken down by country (call for proposals 2016), 31,243 European students have completed part of their university curriculum in the United Kingdom and 16,414 British students have travelled to other EU Member States to study. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)