Erasmus fights for survival. Of him and of his children. The famous university exchange program, born in 1987 on the initiative of the French (later European) student association Egee and endorsed by the then president François Mitterrand, is on the verge of bankruptcy. And according to what was revealed by Le Figaro, which reports the testimony of MEP Alain Lamassoure, "1 million children born to Erasmus couples" would also die with him. One million, of which therefore open a problem not only youth and students but almost family policy.
The news has been in the air for several weeks, and has apprehended an entire generation of former students who have had the opportunity to train and learn languages around Europe thanks to European Union funds, but now the future of Erasmus, already starting from 2013, is increasingly dependent on the decisions of the continental Parliament of Strasbourg, which it will have to make sure, as requested by Brussels, to recover a further 90 million euros from the budgets of the member countries, by 9 November.
Countries that in the case of the Erasmus project, born within the Socrates programme, are 31 (there are also the Scandinavians and Turkey), for a total of over 4 universities and 231 young people participating in the last academic year recorded by Eurostat. In Italy alone, 2010 foreign students arrived in 2011-20 (we are in fifth place after Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom): of these, almost half were Iberian, always followed by French and Germans. The Italian universities most involved were those of Bologna, with 1.700 students welcomed, followed by La Sapienza in Rome and by Florence. Even more were the Italian youngsters who attempted the foreign experience: 22 of them left for Spain (34%), France (15%), and twenty other countries, including Norway and Turkey.
But next year all of that may be gone. And in his legacy there would be not only books, travels, unforgettable evenings, part-time jobs, seasonal loves, new friendships and exams of dubious difficulty, but even families.
Read Le Figaro
