Erasmus for all

Mobility: a term often underlined in EU institutions with reference to the Europe of the future. The concept was reiterated by Josè Manuel Barroso on March 22 during the presentation of the EU Financial Framework 2014-2020. The Erasmus programme, of which recently recurred the 25th anniversary, has acted as a pioneer and a promoter of this key-concept of integration. On the basis of its success, the European Union intends to expand and give new impetus to the project. Stepping up skills. According to the forecasts of the Commission, approximately five million people, almost twice as many as now, could get the chance to study or train abroad with a grant from Erasmus for All, the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport proposed by the European Commission in November 2011. The proposal, with an overall budget of 19 billion euro for seven years, is scheduled to start in 2014. "Investing in education and training is the best investment we can make for Europe’s future. Studying abroad boosts people’s skills, personal development and adaptability, and makes them more employable – declared Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. "We want to ensure that many more people benefit from EU support for these opportunities. We also need to invest more to improve the quality of education and training at all levels so we are a match for the best in the world and so that we can deliver more jobs and higher growth".Creating new activities. But the initiatives don’t stop here and the European Union will support also the young generations that decide to open their own business with the program "Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs". The program, launched in 2009, envisages an exchange scheme whereby new entrepreneurs have the opportunity to stay between 1 to 6 months with an experienced entrepreneur. "During these difficult economic times we need to unlock the huge potential of start-up entrepreneurs and stimulate them to take the final step and set up a new enterprise", said European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, responsible for enterprise and industry policy. The program constitutes "a unique opportunity to learn from experienced colleagues so that their business ideas can become a reality. We need more SMEs to get out of the current crisis. They are creating most new jobs and are the driving force of our economy".Encouraging signs. To date, more than 1300 applications for Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs have been approved, with requests from all of Europe. The United Kingdom is the most requested destination followed by Spain and Italy with 11%. The most active sectors are promotion/media (16%), information technologies (10%), education (9%) legal and fiscal advice services (8%) and tourism (8%). Services are the most represented sector, while manufacturing industries, such as automobile and chemicals, account for 1%. According to the Commission, at less than two years since the launch of the initiative, feedbacks are "very encouraging". 32% of participants were already entrepreneurs before the exchange program, 12% set up a business after the exchange, while more than 40% decided to open their own business. European enterprise promotion awards. For those who have already set up their own economic activity, also this year the European Commission launched the "European Enteprise Promotion Awards" (information on Erasmus for All, on the programs for young entrepreneurs and awards is available on the website of the Commission www.ec.europa.eu), whose aim is "to recognise innovation" and "reward the success of public bodies and public-private partnerships in promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship". Every year around 350 organisations compete in the national rounds of the competition, with over 50 initiatives selected for the European level. National, regional or local authorities, as well as public-private partnerships from all EU Member States including Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Serbia and Turkey are invited to participate. Each country can select two entries to be nominated to the European competition by July 16, 2012.