To say no is nothing less than Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch finance minister and president of the Eurogroup for a few months. The young Dutch politician, known for his very austere tendencies, must have quickly forgotten his years of his (not too distant) university, since he blocked – among other things – the European Union's Erasmus-saving initiative.
Brussels had in fact decided to allocate, at the expense of the Member States, the figure of 11,25 billion euros to pay the outstanding credits of 2012 (including those of Erasmus, whose budget is worth around half a billion) and thus try to carry on the much-loved project that allows students from the old continent to gain experience in foreign universities also in the future. "Before asking individual countries for money - thundered Dijsselbloem - the European Commission should first reduce the costs of other chapters of 2013 to address the outstanding payments of 2012. From this point of view, Brussels has made no effort".
However, it is not only Holland (one of the most popular destinations for Italian students together with Spain) that opposes the payment of arrears and the rescue of Erasmus: even the United Kingdom, through the harsh words of Treasury Secretary Greg Clark, deemed the request "totally unacceptable" of the Commission, at a time when states are making efforts to cut spending. The request, recalls Clark, has an even greater cost than the rescue of Cyprus.
Faced with the refusal of the Netherlands and Great Britain, MEP Alain Lamassoure, who negotiates the budgets with the 27 countries, has already made it known that in this situation "Parliament will not accept the Commission's request". That of a few days ago, which brought the total to 11,225 billion, is in fact the second change made in a few weeks by Brussels: additional 145 million euros requested from the Member States to meet the 2012 bills. Among these there are also those relating to Erasmus: regions, municipalities, universities, researchers, NGOs and other beneficiaries who risk remaining dry, as well as the educational prospects of a generation of students.
