It doesn’t really need an introduction, but it does deserve a disclaimer: it’s not just about parties. Since 1987 the Erasmus programme has allowed more than 2 million European students to spend an average of 6 months in a university abroad or in training in a foreign country, while receiving a scholarship from the European Union.
It is not surprising that the news that the Erasmus programme was going bankrupt has sparked up debate even on mainstream media like Le Monde, which has – somewhat surprisingly - praised the programme as “maker of Europeans since 1987”. Although it looks like funding will be ultimately found to guarantee its continuation (in a budget proposals which will be voted upon on October 22), The Guardian has called for donating to the Erasmus program the money that the European Union will gain from winning the Peace Nobel Prize.
Erasmus as a creator of peace? Although one cannot overestimate the peace making powers of Erasmus exchanges, there is certainly a point to the idea that Erasmus is one of the key defining elements of European citizenship. Because Erasmus has contributed more than anything else – yes, even more than Ryanair – to the mobility of young people in Europe; it has given the possibility – for some of them, the first - to get out of their parents’ houses and home towns to go and get to know the rest of the continent, and even the world. To grow up and learn that Europe can also be made of people, not just of institutions. I will never forget the huge round of applause that the lecture hall I was sitting in, in Maastricht (Netherlands), awarded to the news that the Lisbon Treaty had been approved. As I will never forget the awful Monday 8.30 AM seminars on the case law of the European Court of Justice (so really, no, Erasmus is not just for parties).
But going on Erasmus is not just beneficial for the students who leave. Their families (most of the time) learn that their kids won’t die because of foreign-food-induced hunger and will effectively learn to wash their clothes (hopefully). Sometimes they end up having to host foreign girlfriends and boyfriends and (slowly) change their minds about old national stereotypes. Friends of Erasmus students end up dreaming about foreign locations and universities. Though I will not claim that dreaming about drinking kalimotxo on a Spanish beach will undoubtedly foster a sense of European citizenship, I do think that having been an Erasmus student or knowing one provides a person with a different image of Europe. An image of what Europe might be.
Those who are teenagers now will grow up thinking about the European Union of the economic and financial crisis: weak, kidnapped by national interests, demanding sacrifices to people, and mostly to young people. But this is not the only possible Europe, and this is not the Europe I see as a former Erasmus student. A Europe made of foreign friends rather than foreign leaders; a Europe that is more about Universitat de Valencia, Københavns Universitet, Freie Universität Berlin, Univerzita Karlova v Praze and other universities, rather then the buildings of the European Commission.
And while I recommend to all EU students– but it’s an easy thing to do in a multicultural place like CEU – to use any possibility provided by the Lifelong Learning Programmes of the European Commission, I can’t omit to mention at least one weak point of these exchanges. Living in a foreign country can be very expensive, and Erasmus scholarships are well away from fully covering the living costs one might have to sustain. So just like Higher Education in general, it often comes down to money and the ones who can take part in an Erasmus exchange are only the ones who can really afford it. And this is something that should be addressed by European institutions.
It’s in their interest, because Erasmus students are possibly the best promoters of European values that one might find. Because they’re usually happier about Europe and they sense that EU institutions might provide actual opportunities, and not just bizarre regulations.
I don’t know if an Erasmus generation really exists – as many have speculated in this debate about the programme – but I’m prepared to bet that former Erasmus students would have handled the financial crisis differently. Maybe with more beer. But certainly with a greater sense of what European people look like – that is people, not figures.
Elisabetta Ferrari
Political Science department
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