During the plenary session, Parliament is set to approve the new Erasmus+, the EU’s education, training, youth and sports programme and the European Solidarity Corps programme, supporting volunteering activities for young people in the EU and beyond, for the period 2021-2027. Extracts from the debate - statements by Mariya GABRIEL, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Laurence FARRENG (Renew, FR),, Petra KAMMEREVERT (S&D, DE),, Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE),, and Niklas NIENASS (Greens/EFA, DE). Extracts from the vote, and statements by Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ (EPP, CZ), rapporteur, and Milan ZVER (EPP, SI), rapporteur.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

vote

ŠOJDROVÁ, Michaela (EPP, CZ)

GABRIEL, Mariya (EPP, BG, EC)

Committee on Culture and Education

VERHEYEN, Sabine (EPP, DE)

KAMMEREVERT, Petra (S&D, DE)

ZVER, Milan (EPP, SI)

FARRENG, Laurence (Renew, FR)

NIENASS, Niklas (Greens/EFA, DE)

european solidarity corps (T)

Erasmus+ (T)

EU Solidarity Corps / Erasmus +: extracts from the debate and the vote, and statements by Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ (EPP, CZ), rapporteur, and Milan ZVER (EPP, SI), rapporteur

Title: EU Solidarity Corps / Erasmus +: extracts from the debate and the vote, and statements by Michaela &#352;OJDROV&#193; (EPP, CZ), rapporteur, and Milan ZVER

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Milan ZVER (EPP, SI), This week the European Parliament is adopting a new Erasmus+ programme for the next seven years. New Erasmus+ brings a lot of positive changes. The first big novelty is certainly the size of the budget. The new programme will have almost double the funding (over 28 billion EUR) when compared to the previous financial perspective ( &euro;14.7 billion). This, of course, enabled us to offer more resources to support inclusion. For example, we improved access for people who could not participate Erasmus+ in the past; people living in poverty, people with disability or for adult learners. This is a big thing. We have also included three new initiatives: European Universities and Centres of vocational excellence and Discover EU. These are three new major initiatives that have been included by the European Parliament together with the Council of Europe.

SOUNDBITE (French), Mariya GABRIEL, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Today gives new impetus to the Erasmus Plus programme. This programme has never been so complete with such a large and such an ambitious range of programmes, the budget is pretty much double that of its predecessor. It will allow us to create a greener, more inclusive, more digital future. The new programme not only opens up new possibilities for exchanges and apprenticeships, but it also invests in the training of independent citizens

SOUNDBITE (French), Mariya GABRIEL, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Since 1987, when the Erasmus plus programme was created, 10 million Europeans have been beneficiaries of the programme. Today, our objective is that by 2027, we should be opening up even more opportunities and we should have another 10 million Europeans just in that period.

SOUNDBITE (French), Laurence FARRENG (Renew, FR), We've also got a chapter in which the European Parliament was very keen on, which focuses really on more rural areas. People with disabilities are people from less advantaged backgrounds. So it should be possible for young people to be much more open to Europe right from the outset, from their earliest age, and also to participate in European sport. The programme will also be more green because environmental topics are central to the programme and very it's also an innovative feature in bringing in the European universities and centres of excellence for apprenticeships.

SOUNDBITE (German), Petra KAMMEREVERT (S&amp;D, DE), We have to make it clear in the next seven years that Erasmus plus is not just for university students, but for learners of all kinds. And this is something that we need to communicate better. I think it's particularly good that vocational training will have new opportunities to participate in exchanges and also the new centres for vocational excellence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Michaela &#352;OJDROV&#193; (EPP, CZ), Rapporteur, The main objective of this program is to enhance the engagement of young people and organisations in solidarity activities, mainly volunteering. The participants will have an opportunity to gain experience in volunteering and to start the continuous engagement as active citizens. The participation for the next 7 years is expected to be up to 350 000 participants from 18 to 30. For humanitarian strand, we negotiated age limit of 35 years and possibility to engage experts and coaches without age limit. We acknowledged the specific character of humanitarian activities and demands of the DEVE committee and humanitarian organisations. The programme will be implemented within two strands: solidarity activity and humanitarian aid. The baseline actions of this programme apart from volunteering include solidarity projects, networking, and measures for quality and support.

SOUNDBITE (French), Mariya GABRIEL, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth,, The current crisis has shown us if we needed any evidence that we are stronger together and united. And so the Solidarity Fund gives us this opportunity and the Solidarity Corps will give many opportunities to young people. Volunteering is at the heart of the programme. It will mobilise young people and give them opportunities to play a valuable role in society and to deliver real change.

SOUNDBITE (German), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Volunteers will be able to volunteer in their own country. This should give even more people a chance to experience the volunteering work. But volunteering brings with it major challenges. It requires skills and experience. And in the negotiations, we insisted that the age limit for volunteers in humanitarian aid could be expanded to 35 and that experts could be involved without any age limit at all. And I think that's particularly important when we're talking about development aid and humanitarian aid. Through this programme, we can show Europe's solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (German), Niklas NIENASS (Greens/EFA, DE), European Solidarity Corps is going to allow people to get experiences, learn new languages and cultures, maybe meet the love of their lives, get out of the house. All of these aspects are part of the ESC. 