Following the adoption of the EU budget for 2019, on 15 February, the European Commission published the Amendment of the 2019 annual work programme for the implementation of “Erasmus+”: the Union Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport containing the relevant revisions of the work programme and its financing. The good news is that the total budget allocated to the programme was raised from EUR 3 019 506 507 to EUR 3 270 450 701.

The major changes were made in the General Overview (Part I), in the Grants, Procurements and other actions (Part II) and in the Budget (Part III). In particular, in the General Overview, references to the European Solidarity Corps Regulation, to the EU public diplomacy initiatives in external actions and to the #BeActive Awards were added. In Part II, the “Network of National Erasmus+ Offices and Higher Education Reform Experts (HEREs)” action was added, aiming to provide logistical, administrative and financial support to the Partner Countries neighbouring the EU in implementing reforms in higher education. Other minor changes were made in Points 5.2.4., 5.3, 5.5, 7.2.2., 7.2.3., and 7.5. 

Concerning Part III, the budget was increased or revised in all three Key Actions as follows:

• Key Action 1: Learning mobility of individuals – from EUR 97 400 000 to EUR 108 830 000 
• Key Action 2: Cooperation among organisations and institutions – from EUR 65 895 000 to EUR 72 695 000
• Key Action 3: Support to policy development and cooperation – EUR 250 000 were added for the “Studies” action and reduced from both the “Policy-related and policy dialogue conferences” and the “Youth events” actions. 

The budget was slightly decreased for the Jean Monnet actions and for Sport activities, where it was revised in order to include the #BeActive Awards. Another significant amendment concerned the budget dedicated to the European Universities initiative, which doubled from EUR 30 000 000 to EUR 60 000 000. 

European Commission