35 years of Erasmus – and ECF’s role in establishing it
20 Jan 2022
In 2022, the Erasmus programme is celebrating its 35th anniversary, opening the European Year of Youth. This anniversary event is organised under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union on January 20 2022. Since 1987, the Erasmus programme has benefited 10 million EU citizens. No longer exclusively focused on higher education, the programme is geared towards a wide group of people.
In our ‘Stories of Europe‘ book, celebrating our 65th anniversary, we dedicated two chapters to the role of our foundation in establishing the programme. We’ll copy in a quote here and make the two chapters available for download below.
“ERASMUS is undoubtedly one of the most famous European programmes, and many would say even one of the most successful innovations in recent European history. Few people, however, know that its name not only refers to the Dutch humanist, who for many represents a key figure in European culture, but that it is at the same time an acronym for EuRopean Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students. Similarly, only few people know the complete genealogy of ERASMUS, which is more complex than the story told in official history books and can actually be traced back long before the official launch of the programme in 1987.”
You can access the event ‘ERASMUS for all’ by the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union via this link.
