March has been a particularly busy month in the European Parliament (EP) focused on the development of the latter’s formal position on establishing the Erasmus+ programme for the period 2028-2034.  

Following the sectoral stakeholder hearings hosted in January and February 2026, MEP Bogdan Zdrojewski (EPP), member of the CULT Committee and rapporteur for the European Parliament’s upcoming postion on this file, has received two additional opinions from the EP’s thematic committees, raising the total number of opinions to three, as follows: 

• Draft Opinion of the Committee on Development (20 February 2026), accompanied by a total of 286 suggested amendments 
• Draft Opinion of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (5 March 2026), as well as 370 suggested amendments (part 1 and part 2) 
• Draft Opinion of the Committee on Budgetary Control (6 March 2026), enclosing 38 suggested amendments.  

A fourth and final opinion to the CULT Committee’s position on the next Erasmus+ programme is expected on 8 April 2026, from the Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, and is foreseen to be the most impactful of the four, given the Committee’s weight on the budgetary dimension of the programme, which is binding.  

In turn, the CULT Committee already issued in February its draft opinion to the Committee on Budgets, on the interim report on the proposal for a Council regulation laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2028 to 2034 calling, inter alia, for “an increase in the total budget of the proposed Erasmus+ programme, to EUR 50 billion in 2025 prices”. 

Most of the already issued opinions to the CULT Committee and the accompanying amendments reveal concerns in the EP over: 

• Unprecedentedly high budgetary flexibility requested by the European Commission in its proposal for the draft regulation, the different committees calling for the reintroduction of minimum earmarking by sectors, and in general for more detailed budget lines, as well as clearer and predefined governance 
• High cost of scholarships in strategic fields (for which a pilot call is currently open), which risk divert resources from general mobility actions. Related amendments therefore propose that such scholarships rely on basic funding only (in the amount of the regular mobility grants) from Erasmus+, the remaining part being co-financed from other EU instruments whose objectives they primarily serve (e.g. the European Competitiveness Fund) 
• Importance of synergies with other programmes and funds, as well as their overall complexity 
• Unclear mechanisms of partial and full association to the future programme. 

By and large, the same sensitive points are under the attention of the member states represented in the Council of Ministers, as the Council’s Education Committee continues working in parallel on the member states’ position on the future programme.  

The CULT Committee’ draft position is expected to be finalised by MEP Zdrojewski (EPP) and circulated internally to the EP political groups in mid-May, after which it will be discussed in the CULT Committee meeting of 4 June 2026. Consequently, the ensuing amendments will be discussed and negotiated with the politcial groups. The final position is expected to be voted in the EP’s autumn legislative session due in early October 2026.