How the EU is helping
To help young people who are volunteering or taking part in Erasmus+, as much as possible, the European Commission has said it will make the programmes as flexible as legally possible.
It has recommended that the national agencies, responsible for the management of study exchanges, invoke “force majeure”, which would allow them to assess the possibility of approving additional costs up to a maximum grant amount and to postpone planned activities for 12 months.
Parliament’s culture and education committee has called on the Commission to do everything possible to provide support, clear information and reassurance for participants.
In a letter to Mariya Gabriel, the commissioner responsible for youth and education on 15 April, MEPs ask the Commission to ensure that:
- Maximum flexibility is applied, in particular to help those who have had to return to their home countries for safety reasons
- All exceptional costs in connection with Covid-19 are reimbursed
- Exchange students and participants of the Solidarity Corps programme retain their status
- Exchange students do not lose the academic year and can obtain the ECTS credits through remote study arrangements.
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