“there is not a single university that can rejoice in this decision,” said, sorry, André D. Robert, professor emeritus of science education at the university of Lyon-2 and a member of the laboratory ” Education, cultures, politics.” At the end of long negotiations in Brussels on the recovery plan, post-Covid, the 27 member States agreed Tuesday on a budget the long term (2021-2027). And Erasmus pays, in part, the pots broken.
In fact, the budget of 21.2 billion euros allocated to the famous exchange programme – which has received, since its creation in 1987, to nearly 10 million people in 34 countries – is higher than previous years (14.7 billion over the 2014-2020 period). But it is well below the 24.6 billion euros that the european Commission hoped to get.
The “spending priorities”
And because the world of research is also affected by this melting of the budget – sector is showing a fall of 13.5 billion to $ 5 billion – young people are seen as collateral victims of the economic recovery. A ” serious mistake “, to Patrick Martin-Genier, a specialist in the Europe and professor at Sciences Po. “We cannot sacrifice the youth to repair Europe after a health crisis, social and economic, when the education of young adults is precisely the sector of the future. We sacrifice spending priority on the hotel of austerity “, react.
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What is the message that sends, also, this recovery plan to the supervisor, when “the internationalisation and student mobility are today’s major challenges of university policies” ? “says André D. Robert. “Inter-university cooperation and the common projects which arise are of an important significance to the institutions and more broadly for the european Union “, says the researcher.
european Values
not to mention that Erasmus is a programme with high symbolic value for students and apprentices, which generally reflect the experiences were extremely positive. And even declare, for 83 % of them feel “more european” to their return.
The european Commission recognizes these benefits in 2018, Brussels had proposed to double the budget allocated for the exchange program. Because of this, the revision 2020 downward is perceived as a ” snub “, which will inevitably create a “malay institutions” predicted Patrick Martin-Genier.
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In fact, if the Parliament is “very satisfied” with the plan adopted Tuesday, as indicated by its president David Sassoli, the latter does not have to be dragged to pin these cuts budget. During a press conference on Wednesday, he referred to “budget cuts are unjustified” and said : “We can’t reduce the budget for the research and the youth, and Erasmus, it is impossible. “
Rite of initiation
” This cup should warn us “, abounds André D. Robert. In fact, if the budget for the exchange program remains significant, lower means will lead inevitably to a reduction in projects and students or apprentices beneficiaries. “A loss extremely damaging” for those who will surrender to what was, for many, become an initiation rite. One hundred thousand French have benefited from Erasmus since its creation, placing france as the first european country sending its students abroad, before Germany, Spain and Italy.
