Erasmus+ - Performance

Programme in a nutshell

Concrete examples of achievements (*)

^{(*) Key achievements in the table state which period they relate to. Many come from the implementation of the predecessor programmes under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. This is expected and is due to the multiannual life cycle of EU programmes and the projects they finance, where results often follow only after completion of the programmes.}

Budget for 2021-2027

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Rationale and design of the programme

Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support mobility and cooperation in education, training, youth and sport in Europe and beyond. The 2021-2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion and diversity, the green and digital transitions, and on promoting young people’s participation in democratic life. It supports priorities and activities set out inter alia in the European education area, the digital education action plan and the European skills agenda. 

Budget

Budget programming (million EUR):

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  Financial programming:
  + EUR 185.5 million (+ 1%)
  compared to the legal basis*

^{(* Top-ups pursuant to Article 5 of the multiannual financial framework regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.} 

• The budget profile of the Erasmus + programme is strongly backloaded, growing at a regular, though not even, rhythm year-over-year between 2021 and 2026, with a sharp increase in 2027. Taking into account this multiannual financial framework profile, the Commission proposed a frontloading of EUR 100 million from 2027 to 2023, actually voted in the final EU budget for 2023, to reinforce the support of the programme to pupils, students, teachers and qualified staff fleeing from Ukraine.  
• The difference of the budget between the financial programming and the legal basis can be explained as follows: In 2022, 2023 and 2024, the Erasmus+ programme received additional credits as a result of the final EU voted budget, respectively EUR 35 million in 2022, EUR 20 million in 2023 and EUR 60 million in 2024. In 2022 and 2023, a total amount of EUR 7.5 million, resulting from a surplus in the employment and social innovation programme, has been transferred to the Erasmus+ programme to optimise the budget implementation within the title 07 of the budget. Finally, the Erasmus+ programme benefits from an additional contribution of EUR 57 million deriving from the European Social Fund Plus for the 2022-2027 period to be allocated to the German national agency. 

Budget performance – implementation

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2023 (million EUR):

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Voted budget implementation (million EUR)^(*):

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Contribution to horizontal priorities

Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):

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• The actions supported by the programme contribute to the overall climate objective, both by prioritising the green transition in cooperation activities and by promoting green practices at the project level throughout the programme. 
• In this respect, the programme supports the use of innovative and awareness-raising practices to make learners, volunteers, staff and youth workers true factors of change (e.g. save resources, reduce energy use and waste, compensate carbon footprint emissions, opt for sustainable food and mobility choices). 
• Funding rules have been revised so that, from 2024, sustainable travel will become the default option, and the programme will offer stronger incentives for those who travel in a sustainable way. Participants in learning mobility activities will be encouraged to prioritise green travel as their first choice when planning their trip. 
• The yearly contribution to climate objectives is based on beneficiary organisations’ applications for funding for the cooperation of projects (key action 2) with climate-related topics. The environment and the fight against climate change are among the horizontal priorities of the programme, which aims to support, across all sectors, awareness raising about the green transition and about environmental and climate-change challenges. Examples of cooperation projects addressing climate objectives can be found in the Erasmus+ Annual Report 2022 and on the Erasmus+ projects results platform. 

Gender

Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):

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• The programme framework of inclusion measures was adopted in 2021 to reinforce inclusion measures that had already been implemented and to help adapt them to different circumstances in the Member States. With these measures in place, which also include the setting up of national inclusion plans and the nomination of inclusion contact points in each national agency, the programme opens up opportunities for many people to have a learning experience in another country, in particular by reaching out to increasing numbers of people with fewer opportunities. These measures are starting to bear fruit, with an estimated share in 2023 of 15% of participants with fewer opportunities under key action 1 of the programme (compared with 13% in 2022). 
• In line with the principles of the 2020-2025 gender equality strategy, Erasmus+ contributes to fostering equality, including gender equality, in all of the sectors it addresses. The programme seeks, among other aims, to help overcome gender stereotypes in education and educational careers and to strengthen the promotion of participation of women in the area of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, especially in engineering, information and communication technologies and advanced digital skills. For instance, the programme contributes to fostering gender balance in higher education institutions, across fields of study and in leadership positions, while in the vocational education and training sector it supports targeted measures promoting gender balance in traditionally ‘male’ or ‘female’ professions and addressing gender and other stereotypes. The main programme indicators are disaggregated by gender when relevant and possible. 
• Regarding interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality (score 2), the yearly contribution to gender is based on beneficiary organisations’ applications for receiving funding for cooperation projects (key action 2) with gender-related topics. 
• Regarding interventions with a likely but not yet clear impact on gender equality (score 0*), the yearly contribution to gender is the difference between the programme’s budget as indicated in the relevant annual work programme and the yearly contribution to gender based on beneficiary organisations’ applications for receiving funding for cooperation projects (key action 2) with gender-related topics. 
• The data are provisional, as the final results will only be available upon completion of the projects (normally 2-3 years after they start). 
• Due to the specificities of the Erasmus+ programme, it is not possible to fully discern the gender contribution from voted budget implementation commitments only. The split presented in the table above represents a pro rata division based on the scores’ proportions of the total implementation included in the relevant annual work programmes. This total of EUR 11 310 million includes other sources of funding on top of the voted budget implementation. 

Digital

Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):

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• Erasmus+ is heavily mobilised to respond to the necessary digital transformation of education and training, youth and sport. 2022 saw the launch of the Digital SALTO (support advanced learning and training opportunities) project, with the aim of supporting the qualitative implementation of the digital priority in the programme and bringing the programme closer to policies in the field of digital education.  
• The programme’s mobility actions provide an increased number of opportunities to acquire and develop digital skills through initiatives such as the digital opportunity traineeships scheme. The programme also complements physical mobility by promoting distance and blended learning. Moreover, it provides a broad range of learning opportunities focusing on basic and advanced digital competence development and virtual exchanges, and supports cooperation projects on digital education. 
• The programme supports the implementation of the 2021-2027 digital education action plan. In line with the action plan’s priorities, the programme contributes to the development of digital skills and competences; promotes accessible and high-quality digital learning; fosters teachers’ capacity to use digital tools, services and content to enhance student learning and develop student digital skills; and provides blended learning opportunities (combinations of more than one approach to the learning process, blending school-site and distance-learning environments and digital and non-digital learning tools). Erasmus+ also supports European online platforms for virtual cooperation and digital education. 
• In 2023, completed key actions included the adoption of the digital education and skills package, consisting of two Council recommendations, adopted by the Commission in April 2023 and by the Council in November 2023: (1) a Council recommendation on the key enabling factors for successful digital education and training ; and (2) a Council recommendation on improving the provision of digital skills and competences in education and training. 
• Throughout 2023, the Commission continued to implement the Selfie tool (‘Self-reflection on effective learning by fostering the use of innovative educational technologies’), which has now been used by 5.8 million people in 29 758 schools in 86 countries. 
• The European Digital Education Hub was launched in 2022. In 2023, the hub continued to expand its activities and its membership, which reached 4 000. In June 2023, a higher education interoperability working group was established within the European Digital Education Hub with the aim of exchanging good practices, developing a framework for seamless higher education data and content exchange, and producing practical implementation guidelines. 
• The European student card initiative aims to make it as easy as possible for students across Europe to be mobile. Through its key components – the Erasmus+ mobile app, the European student card and the digitalisation of student mobility management – the initiative constitutes a real revolution in simplifying the way universities manage student mobility. By the end of 2023, the Erasmus+ mobile app had been downloaded more than 218 000 times and more than 2.3 million European student cards had been produced. The Erasmus Without Paper network has become the default option for higher education institutions to prepare intra-European student mobility. By the end of 2023, more than 102 000 interinstitutional agreements and 92 000 learning agreements had been digitally exchanged and approved by partners. 
• The yearly contribution to digital objectives is based on, among other things, beneficiary organisations’ applications for receiving funding for cooperation projects (key action 2) with digital-related topics. Results also include centralised projects supporting digital education and managed directly by DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and digital platforms supporting learners, staff and organisations. 
• The data are provisional as the final results will only be available upon completion of the projects (normally 2-3 years after they start). 

Budget performance – outcomes

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• In 2023, despite persisting external challenges (notably some long-lasting effects of the pandemic and a fast-growing inflation rate caused by the energy crisis following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine), the programme could fully resume its long-standing mission to support transnational learning mobility, while continuously promoting cooperation between organisations and policy development. 
• 2023 was the year when, for the first time ever, the programme provided learning mobility opportunities for sports coaches and other sports staff. This was greatly appreciated by grassroots sports organisations and has attracted considerable demand. 
• Some novelties of the programme, for instance the accreditation scheme (inspired from the mechanism already established for higher education, but now extended to the other main sectors of the programme), have been very successful and have attracted considerable demand. This scheme simplifies the application process and enables easier access to funds for mobilities activities. 
• The programme continued rolling out the numerous initiatives that will contribute to achieving the European education area by 2025. The programme supported this through flagship initiatives like the European universities, centres of vocational excellence and Erasmus+ teacher academies. Its many actions in support of young people were particularly highlighted during the 2022 European Year of Youth and its legacy. 

Delivering on the main priorities 

• In 2023, the programme also continued to focus on its four main horizontal priorities, promoting inclusion and diversity and contributing to the green and digital transitions, and also to democratic participation and EU values via support to projects and to specific activities. Indicators monitoring the evolution of the programme’s cross-cutting priorities track their performance at various levels. For example, the share of activities addressing climate objectives under key action 1 shows a positive trend for all sectors. The relevance of the green priority is also confirmed by the data under key action 2, where progress is ahead of target and increasing. The inclusion priority is measured through various indicators tracking the number of participants with fewer opportunities taking part in the different strands of the programme. The trends here are positive, and the numbers overall have been growing through the early years of programme implementation. This shows the positive results of the framework of inclusion and diversity measures set up in 2021, but also the inclusiveness of the programme through the number of newcomer organisations reached thanks to the simplification measures introduced in the new programme. The set of result indicators introduced through the delegated act also monitors the progress of the four priorities by tracking positive changes and learning outcomes linked to such priorities in participants, while additional output indicators complete the set monitoring the contribution to the priorities through projects under key action 2. Synergies between Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes are visible in the recently adopted monitoring and evaluation frameworks, where similar indicators (adapted to the peculiarities of the two programmes and their actions) are available, in particular to monitor contributions to the priorities of the cross-cutting programmes. Moreover, SALTO resource centres provide support to both national agencies and beneficiaries for high-quality implementation of the four priorities across Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps, fostering synergies among the programmes. 
• Besides the dedicated existing resource centres for support, advanced learning and training opportunities (known as SALTO) on inclusion and on democratic participation, other centres have been set up since 2022 to support the qualitative implementation of both the digital and the green horizontal priorities in the programme. The aim of the centres is to improve the quality and impact of the Erasmus+ programme at a systemic level by providing expertise, resources, analysis, information and training activities in specific areas for Erasmus+ national agencies and other relevant actors. 
• Rising inflation put increasing pressure on mobile learners’ costs. Therefore, the Commission adjusted the rates of individual support for the 2023 call for proposals of the Erasmus+ programme, with a focus on supporting individual mobility participants, as they are the people most affected by the increase in the cost of living. 
• Under the 2024 call, the Commission has even more thoroughly revised the funding rules for learning mobility participants in order to improve the programme’s inclusiveness. Travel support, which was until now included within the monthly grant, has now been generalised for all categories of students, thus substantially improving the support provided to these participants. For youth mobilities, rates have also been considerably increased to match current market prices. For the other categories of participants, rates have also been adjusted to compensate for the impact of inflation. 

Democratic participation and EU values 

• In the 2023 Erasmus+ call, all three Jean Monnet actions in other fields of education and training (Jean Monnet for schools) were included, promoting teaching and learning about the EU in schools and in vocational education and training institutions and enhancing teachers’ competences in this field. The objective of these funding opportunities is to empower teachers to teach about the EU, to improve learning outcomes on EU matters, to strengthen EU literacy and to create interest in the EU and democratic processes among learners (students and pupils), thus promoting active citizenship education in the programme countries. In 2023, two schools networks and 10 teacher training projects were selected, along with 44 projects under the learning EU initiatives action. The Jean Monnet actions in the field of higher education continue to stimulate teaching, learning and research in European integration matters, to promote debates and contribute to spreading knowledge about the EU. 
• Youth participation activities have also been launched as a new action aiming to enhance young people’s skills and competences and foster active citizenship. This action complements the existing support for non-formal learning activities, such as youth exchanges bringing together young people from different countries to exchange and learn outside their formal educational system. From 2021 to 2023, EUR 80 million was devoted to this action. 
• In line with the Erasmus+ regulation, the 2023 and 2024 Erasmus+ annual work programmes reaffirmed the key role of the programme in strengthening European identity and values and in contributing to a more democratic EU. Entities that are beneficiaries from EU projects have the obligation to commit to and ensure the respect of basic EU values. The implementing documents have strengthened this dimension from 2024 with an award criterion assessing the extent to which the proposal is relevant for the respect and promotion of shared EU values, and a check box on EU values in the application forms. 

The international dimension 

• After the successful launch of the international actions in 2022, Erasmus+ has now reached its cruising speed. In 2025, our objective is to support around 1 200 international credit mobility projects that aim to provide opportunities to more than 50 000 higher education students and staff to carry out their mobility periods abroad, all around the world. In 2023, through Erasmus Mundus actions, around 108 higher education institutions from 26 countries were involved in developing joint international master’s degree programmes. Additionally, 274 capacity-building projects are under way, promoting cooperation among institutions and organisations engaged in higher education, vocational education and training, youth and sport. 

Continuing support for Ukraine 

• Since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Erasmus+ programme has been mobilised, thanks to its built-in flexibility, to support projects promoting educational activities and facilitating the integration of people fleeing the war in Ukraine into their new learning environments, along with activities assisting organisations, learners and staff in Ukraine. Participating organisations have been encouraged to focus their activities as they see fit. A focus was placed on key action 1 (mobility) projects, relating to their capacity to support incoming mobility from Ukraine and facilitate the integration of learners and staff fleeing the war in Ukraine. 
• In 2025, Ukraine will continue to be a key focus for the programme, and sector-specific priorities have been added, in particular to partnerships for cooperation (key action 2) in the fields of education, training and youth seeking to support those affected by the war. The range of actions in support of Ukraine is expected to be very broad, as there are many different needs in the education sector, on the part of pupils and students, teachers and trainers, and universities and schools, along with non-governmental organisations. 

Contribution to the sustainable development goals