The European Union saves Erasmus students from the "hard Brexit" specter. Less than two months after the official farewell and with the danger of a "No deal" becoming more real day by day, Brussels' aim is to safeguard those who have already started studying across the Channel.
On a theoretical level, the UK guidelines explain that London "will relate to the European Commission with the aim of ensuring the UK's full participation in the Erasmus+ and European solidarity corps programs until 2020".
The problem is that, in the event of a hard Brexit, any reassurance could fail. For this reason the EU Commission presented “an emergency regulation for Erasmus+”. The proposal will be voted on by the European Parliament in one of the two plenary sessions in March. At the same time, negotiations will be held with the EU Council. The aim is to approve everything before March 29, the official date of Brexit.
“All the activities of the Erasmus+ program that have started before March 30th they will be funded until the end, i.e. for a maximum of 12 months,” the regulation establishes.
The rule ensures that "people abroad with an Erasmus+ funded activity will not see their activity interrupted on the day the UK leaves the European Union". Not only that, it also applies to those who take the reverse path. The rules apply "for example to a student of a French university on Erasmus+ in London, but equally to a British student who is taking part in an Erasmus+ program in Budapest", explains the Commission.
Simply speaking, students who will participate in the Erasmus+ project until 30 March 2019 will have no problems. And this is not a small number of people: to date there are 14 European students who study temporarily in the United Kingdom and 7 Britons who do the same in one of the EU countries.
And after March 29, what happens? A question that for now remains unanswered, also because, in the event of a "No deal" the agreements made for the transition period (which will last until the end of 2020) would also lapse. Those who would like to do Erasmus in the UK after Brexit, for the moment, can do nothing but wait and hope that politics will be able to find a solution in the face of an unprecedented scenario such as that of the United Kingdom leaving the EU.
