The European Commission will guarantee around 280 000 Erasmus scholarships in the 2013-2014 school year, after Member States and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on the funding issues.
The agreement also covers other exchange programs under the Lifelong Learning program (such as Leonardo da Vinci for vocational training, Comenius for primary and secondary education and Grundtvig for adult education), which enable young people and teachers develop their skills and broaden career prospects through studies or training in a foreign country.
Also safeguarded are the Marie Curie Actions, which support the international mobility of researchers.
The agreement, officially approved by the European Parliament after the green light given by Member States last week, fills a deficit of 180 million euros in the 2012 budget of the Lifelong Learning programme.
The amount missing from the Erasmus program amounted to around €90 million of that total.
The Commission can now transfer the necessary funds to the national agencies responsible for managing the Erasmus program in the Member States.
The agencies then make the funds available to the beneficiaries of the program, namely the home universities and colleges, who pay the monthly scholarships to the students.
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