Concern mounts in Spain over EU proposed funding cuts to Erasmus+ student exchange programme

Almost a million students have just started the Erasmus+ student exchange programme for another year, travelling to universities across Europe. Since it began in 1987, the programme has facilitated mobility between educational centres throughout Europe but now, that may be about to change. The announcement of cuts in the programme’s funding by the EU Council is raising concerns across Europe.

“Our association has a clear position regarding this, and obviously we want the Erasmus scholarship and the possibility of international mobility to be available to everyone, regardless of their social class,” says Alberto Fernández from the Erasmus Student Network.

“This is in fact one of our causes and one of the things we fight for,” he added.

Alberto studies at the University of Seville, where this year more than 2,300 foreign students have landed, thanks to the Erasmus programme. He, along with many student associations, opposes the EU Commission’s proposed 295 million euro cut in budget funding for the programme. 

At the gates of the University of Seville, in the south of Spain, a group of students begins to gather. It is one of the welcoming events for students of the programme who are about to begin classes. They are young people from almost all the countries in Europe, but mainly from Italy and Germany.

“It’s from my first days in Seville, and we come to meet more people who are on Erasmus,” says Sarah Loaisa from Italy, who has only been in the city for a week.

They have a full course ahead of them, but first, they want to start by getting to know the city where they will live for the next few months.

“I live in a student residence and pay 700 euros each month, and food for me, more or less, is 100 euros per month.”

According to the Spanish banking group BBVA, the average expense of an Erasmus student is roughly about 800 euros, which gives an estimated revenue of close to ten million euros for a city like Sevilla.

“Many foreign students come and, of course, they consume a lot, and thanks to them and the university, we have a lot of customers here and business is going very well,” says Marín, who works in a restaurant in front of the University of Seville.

The estimated revenues do not include the almost seven million euros that the University of Seville receives in funding from the Erasmus programme itself.

Seville in particular was chosen by Erasmus students themselves as one of the five favourite Erasmus destinations, along with the cities of Porto, Nicosia, Istanbul, and Sofia. 

Meanwhile, MEPs on the European Parliament’s budget committee have opposed proposals for cuts to landmark EU programmes, including Erasmus. They instead called for increases when adopting their position on the Commission’s draft budget for 2025 on Monday evening in Strasbourg.

“We are asking for an increase to key programmes that we consider essential in the current context,” MEP Victor Negrescu (Romania/S&D), the Parliament’s lead negotiator on the 2025 budget, said.

EU institutions are expected to begin negotiating the 2025 budget in November. If the cuts are approved, nearly all countries in the programme will be affected, but even more, Spain, which has been the main destination for Erasmus students since 2001.

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This year alone, more than 150,000 young people from the programme will go through Spanish universities, where Madrid leads amongst the destination cities, followed by Barcelona, ​​Valencia and Seville.

Concern is also mounting that the cuts will impact the mobility of the students who travel the most, who are, in this order, French, German, and Spanish.

With the decision on the proposed budget cut yet to be ratified, this year has already seen almost 400 thousand fewer participants in the Erasmus programme compared to last year—the first time that the numbers have begun to fall after the pandemic.