In the recent meeting on 25 March, the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT Committee) addressed two major issues for education: a revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world and a new vision for the European Universities alliances. 

In his draft opinion, the rapporteur Mr Hannes Heide (S&D) stressed the importance of: 

• Inclusiveness of EU spending programmes and unrestricted, barrier-free access.  
• Simplification of application procedures to enable small-scale and voluntary organisations to apply for Union funding.  
• Adapting of grants to actual inflation levels to avoid substantive losses of purchasing power. 
• Avoiding competition between funding for EU programmes and the repayment of obligations stemming from the Next Generation EU borrowing. 

In their interventions, the shadow rapporteurs underlined the need to reinforce the role of Erasmus+ in promoting European values, fostering exchange among young Europeans, and strengthen its budget. The European Commission is running a related public consultation on EU funding for education, youth, and culture until 6 May 2025 (for more details, see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, March 2025). 

The exchange of views on the future of European University Alliances centered around plans to ensure their long-term sustainability and strengthen their contribution to Europe’s global competitiveness and innovation. Key speakers included Prof. Szeptycki, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, representing the Polish Presidency and Ms. Susanne Conze, Head of the Higher education Unit at DG EAC, European Commission.  

Following this meeting, CULT Committee published a draft report “on a new vision for the European Universities alliance”. The report acknowledges high interest in the European Universities initiative and the overall diversity of the alliances. It welcomes the integration of students in the alliances’ governance structures, the alliances’ engagement in pilot projects aimed at creating a European degree and legal status, and the significant increase in mobility projects involving students and staff. The report also highlights and supports the Union of Skills initiative and the establishment of FOREU4ALL, a new community of practice for European Universities alliances. The following recommendations emerge from the report: 

• Strategic vision and funding: The report stresses the need for a strategic vision for the alliances in the next MFF, moving away from a ‘project-based logic’ approach based on sustainable and predictable funding. Such funding should primarily support existing and successful alliances, with dedicated resources foreseen under future calls. A thorough evaluation of each alliance would be nessary to offer tailor-made support, which would come not only from the future Erasmus+ programme, but also other EU programmes, as well as from national, local and private sources. 
• Links to European strategic autonomy and competitiveness: The report highlights the need to extend funding and actions to all three university missions while strengthening the R&I pillar within the alliances, especially when it comes to strategic fields such as quantum computing or artificial intelligence, while asking the Commission to consider adding criteria to possible future calls for related topics (i.e., energy, defence, climate change and digital transition). 
• Internationalisation: The report refers to the need for the alliances to strengthen partnerships with non-EU countries, leveraging existing instruments such as Erasmus Mundus, in line with the Global Gateway strategy and in compliance with European values.  

The report will be forwarded by the President of the European Parliament to the Council and the European Commission.