The Erasmus+ Programme

The new programme phase of the EU education programme Erasmus+ for Education, Youth and Sport started on 1 January 2021. From 2021 to 2027, the new programme has a total budget of 28.4 billion euros at its disposal; this is significantly more than in the previous programme phase from 2014-2020. With 10 million, the programme should reach considerably more people in the future. 83% percent of the funds are earmarked for activities in the field of education and training.

Erasmus+ will continue the well-proven programme architecture of its predecessor:

Key Action 1: Learning Mobility of Individuals
Key Action 2: Cooperation among organisations and institutions
Key Action 3: Erasmus+ Support to policy development and cooperation

The new Erasmus+ programme generation 2021-2027 focuses on the following cross-cutting themes:

Shorter mobility stays and blended learning offers are intended to address new target groups and thus involve previously underrepresented groups more strongly in the future. European and national inclusion strategies will provide the framework for these activities.

Virtual exchange and blended mobility should complement physical mobility and digital processes aim to simplify programme administration (European Student Card Initiative).

Erasmus+ aims to contribute to the European Green Deal by raising participants’ awareness of the issue through funded cooperation projects and by promoting environmentally friendly forms of mobility.

The funding line for mobility with programme countries will be opened up internationally to a limited extent and can thus reflect the international priorities of European higher education institutions. The established international dimension with a focus on candidate and neighbourhood countries, Africa and incoming mobility will be continued from 2022.

The following three funding lines are new additions:

„DiscoverEU“ (non-formal learning experience on the linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe)
Centres of vocational excellence (including partnerships for vocational education and training)
European Universities

Like its predecessor, the programme provides for the possibility of partner countries outside the EU to associate themselves with the programme. In the previous programme generation, Norway, Iceland, Serbia, Turkey, Liechtenstein and Northern Macedonia made use of this option. The association negotiations for the current programme (as of March 2021) have not yet been formally concluded. The United Kingdom has decided against association with Erasmus+ for the time being.

The legal basis of the Erasmus+ programme, the Erasmus+ Regulation, has not yet been finally adopted as of March 2021, but is to apply retroactively for the programme start on 1 January 2021.

The documents around Erasmus+ (2021-2027) at a glance

On 25 March 2021, the call for the new Erasmus+ was published by the EU Commission. Here you can find all relevant information and documents about the new programme generation: