The European Commission on Thursday gave a green light for the resumption of financing and the signing of contracts for the Erasmus+ youth programme in Greece, the education ministry announced. The programme for Greece had been frozen since 2014, when it was temporarily suspended over fears that the Greek service supervising the allocation of the funds did not meet the required management standards.
The Erasmus+ programme, which went into effect on January 1, 2014, will last until 2020 and has a total budget of 14.7 billion euros. For Greece, for the year 2017, the total budget for subsidising the plans and activities of more than 4,500 young people and dozens of youth organisations is expected to exceed 4.5 million euros.
After the Commission’s positive assessment of the Foundation for Youth and Life-long Learning, which has been appointed as the National Unit for Greece, the country “has regained its credibility and can once again use Community funds to implement the programme,” an education ministry announcement said.
The aim of Erasmus+ is to finance education, training, youth and sports actions that aim to improve the skills and modernise education and training systems for young people. The youth section of the programme, in particular, allows young people to travel abroad and take part in exchange programmes, use European voluntary work and take part in European seminars and inter-state meetings. (ERT.gr)
The ERASMUS for Greece was in fact deliberately frozen in June 2015, at the peak of the negotiation crisis between Greece and its creditors.
According to my opinion, the Commission decision had little to do with “fears” and “funds allocation”. It was one of the usual punishments and blackmails of the EU towards the debt-ridden country.
The news had come from Italy and no official statement was made in Greece. The EU Commission decision was revealed accidentally, when students in Italy received notices telling them “not to enroll for Greece’s program.”
