Plenty of AEGEE members have heard about Erasmus+ at some point. However, not many of us have actually gone through the time-consuming application process. The long application form and the large amount of questions and items you need to think about sound like an unreachable objective for many locals and European bodies of AEGEE. And yes – it is hard, it takes a lot of time, but by no means it is impossible! In this article, we will decode Erasmus+ and make it easy. After all, having quite some financial support for your projects is always an optimal thing, isn’t it?

What does the Erasmus+ fund?

• Key Action 1 deals with mobility for young people and youth workers;
• Key Action 2 deals with cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices – meaning cooperation among youth organisations to run joint projects;
• Key Action 3 is about policy development and support for reforms on youth policy (for instance, the Structured Dialogue).

This article will focus especially on Key Action 1 initiatives, because it is the one that gives more space for opportunities for AEGEE locals, and it is the one that receives the biggest percentage of Erasmus+ funds (long story short, ‘easier’ to get).

The Key Action 1 of Erasmus+ focuses on the development of the individual, meaning YOU as a student/young person. In other words, you attend a training course where you gain a certain set of skills and competences. In this way, it contributes to your personal development and, no less important, to understand other cultures and countries participating in the training course better.

There are three main activities that you can organise under Key Action 1:

• Youth exchanges: an opportunity for students aged 13 to 30 to meet up and address a chosen topic (arts, education, audiovisuals, sports, you name it!), where different methods are used, such as workshops, simulation games and other exercises – all of them prepared beforehand.
• European Voluntary Service (EVS): namely, the opportunity to volunteer for up to one year at an organisation abroad, in order to contribute to its daily work and bring a benefit to the local community. There are many types of organisations and topics which you can participate in for your EVS, ranging from environment, to culture, people with disabilities, media, development, and many more!
• Training and networking for youth workers: these include anything related to your professional development – training courses, seminars, debates, case study trips. If you are interested in boosting your skills, this is the place to be!

You might be thinking: “I want to participate in one of these activities!”…

Picture from l’Auberge Espagnole, the film that depicted the Erasmus lifestyle for the first time.

Great news: it is easier and more accessible than you might think! The most important thing that you need is to get your AEGEE antenna registered in the Erasmus+ database and get the Partner Identification Code (PIC), you can find more information about it in the Members Portal.

Then, you just need to find a training course of your interest! There are a handful of Facebook groups where youth organisations from all over Europe look for partners or participants for their youth exchanges. However, *the* source for training activities is SALTO-YOUTH’s European Training Calendar. Browse all the options that you will find in there, send your mandate (which will confirm that you agree to be a partner of the project), and you are just one click away from starting a journey of a lifetime!

…or you might be thinking: “how about applying with my own project?”

You have an idea in mind for a great project? You need resources? What better idea than to get funding from Erasmus+? The first thing you would need is a theme for your project. In this sense, Erasmus+ funds a wide range of topics, ranging from active citizenship, intercultural learning and preventing discrimination, employability and entrepreneurship, promotion of diversity, trainings, non-formal education, all topics that we, AEGEEans, work with on a daily basis!

Moreover, one of the highlights and priorities of the year 2016 for the European Commission concerns the current refugee crisis. Because of it, projects that promote intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, respect for human rights, and that involve refugees and asylum seekers in some way will be given a “plus”.

Once you have an idea, it is the time to design your master plan and make it happen! First of all, you have to know that your Erasmus+ will not only be “an event” as such, but a project as a whole. Erasmus+ works in a way that you submit a project, and that this project can have one or more activities (what we understand as events/exchanges/training courses as such). Therefore, each project needs to follow different basic stages: planning (including previous preparation in terms of logistics and content, how you will communicate with participants etc.), execution, and closure (which includes the impact, evaluation and PR/communication of the project). And you need to carefully plan all of the stages.

Therefore, when planning it, you need to ask yourself: what are the aim and the objectives that I want to achieve with this exchange/training/conference? Which impact is it going to have? What are all the steps that I need to take in order to make my project happen? How will I plan the PR campaign for my project? How will I select the participants? Some of the questions in the long Erasmus+ application form are quite basic for someone who has a lot of experience organising events, but it is important for you to follow the different quality assurance steps, and use the questions as a ‘check-list’ of things you need to think about when putting your project into practice.

Something that you should really put an emphasis on, and that the National Agencies value, is how you plan to follow-up and disseminate (namely, the PR and communication of the event in social media, in booklets, etc) your project so it has a big impact. Another big “plus” for your application has to do with inclusion: how will you ensure gender balance? Are you planning to include young people with fewer opportunities? Last but not least, you should also consider which tools you plan to use in order to recognise the skills that the participants will gain from your project. There are many certifications available, and you should strongly consider using the YouthPass, a commonly-used European tool to certify these skills.

Partner up!

In a project funded by Erasmus+, you will not be alone! As we explained before, your AEGEE antenna can become a partner in an Erasmus+ project, get involved in it and send participants, right? It also happens the other way around: you need partners to make your own project happen!

The first thing to consider is that you need to partner up with organisations that are similar to yours, and that are somehow related to the topic of your project. For instance, for a project related to social inclusion, you would not really ask an organisation of aerospace engineering students, would you? Therefore, you need to clearly define the aim of your project, and which types of organisations you can partner with. Of course, you can involve and be partners with other AEGEE locals – however, I would strongly encourage you to also find partners that are not AEGEE locals! This will definitely give you a “plus” in the eyes of the National Agency.

There are several ways to find partners for Erasmus+. Search for “Erasmus+ partner” on Facebook, and you will find a handful of Facebook groups where you can promote your project and find others who also need partners. Most importantly, you need to think how to involve these partners: will they be taking care and supporting you with the content? Will they take part in the participants’ selection? How (and how often) will you communicate with them?

That must have been a lot of information for you! Explaining Erasmus+ shortly is not an easy task. Because of this, the Comité Directeur is always available to help and answer all your questions. So, if you have any other questions, do not hesitate to approach me at communications@aegee.org! Another great source of information is the UK National Agency of Erasmus+, or check the information of your National Agency in your own language.

Written by Anna Gumbau, Communications Director of AEGEE-Europe 2015-2016

A few days ago, the Council of the European Union published its proposal for “a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing”, resulting from the meeting in Brussels on the last 9th of December.

The Council of the European Union, who was under the Italian Presidency back in December, made a further step in the legislative process which will lead to an update Directive on visa issues. In fact, back in March 2013, the European Commission (EC) published a Proposal for revising the existing Directive 2014/114/EC (dated December 2004) on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of studies, pupil exchange, unremunerated training or voluntary service, and Directive 2005/71/EC (Dating October 2005) on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of scientific research. The aim was to improve the legal framework applicable to third-country nationals, including also the remunerated trainees and au pair.

In February 2014, the European Parliament (EP) voted its first reading, serving as a mandate for the negotiations with the Council.

Despite its title, and the premises in the same text (point (2) of the Proposal: “[The Directive] should therefore simplify and streamline the existing provisions for the different groups”), this proposal was embarrassingly inadequate compared to the EC and the EP proposals.

In fact, already in the Article 1 (a) and in the Article 2 (1), the Directive makes a clear distinction between third-country nationals who apply to be admitted on the territory of a Member State for the purpose of research and study – for which the Directive shall compulsory apply –  and the ones applying in the frame of “pupil exchange scheme or educational project, unremunerated training or voluntary service”, for which “Member States may also decide to apply” (the Directive, ndr).

This reduction of the scope of the Directive, compared to the one proposed by the EC, is of huge concern. In fact, if we bring it to our association, it may mean that non-EU members may have burdens in participating in events taking place in all those countries who won’t extend the scope of the Directive to others than students.

The second biggest concern regards the fee for applying for a visa: not only is a fee foreseen, but, in its document,the Council does not foresee any limitation, but rather gives a suggestion for it not to be “disproportionate or excessive”. Again, the limit of the Council is clear: we all know how difficult, demanding and expensive it is to apply for a visa (if we didn’t apply directly, we for sure know stories from our friends in the Network), and this document proceeds in the exact opposite way than the Erasmus+ legal framework, where the learning mobility of individuals is one of the main actions to pursue the Programe objectives.

The list doesn’t stop unfortunately. Reading further in the document is clearly stated that “The competent authorities of the Member State concerned shall adopt a decision […] as soon as possible but no later than 90 days of the complete application being lodged”. Can you imagine applying for an Agora three months in advance to make sure to get the visa on time? Moreover, this provision extends considerably the “60 days” EC proposal, and even more the “30 days” framework suggested by the European Parliament.

The last remarkable point comes regarding the visa holders for studying and research considering to spend a period of time (up to 6 months) in another EU Country: despite the already long procedure spent to apply for a visa, the third-countries nationals may incur in a renew procedure for the second Member State, who is allowed to start further verification on documentation and purpose of stay.

Luckily, this is not the final version of the Directive. According to the Lisbon Treaty, this document has to go through the Parliament, who has the right not to validate it as such, but to propose modifications that will need to be then approved by the Council.

Of course, this doesn’t mean at all that there is an easy path ahead. Unfortunately, this document shares the fear to further concede facilitation for mobility in Europe. Let’s not forget that the Schengen agreement has been quoted and pointed out as one of the main factors allowing free movement to terrorists, and the happenings in Ukraine, Turkey, France, Libya (and the list may unfortunately go on) are misused and misreported to create a growing terror mood in Europe which is disruptive and mining the concept of United Europe.

That’s why AEGEE, together with the European Youth Forum and in all the possible platforms, is and has to continue campaigning for Youth Rights in Europe. An official statement has been presented, and a Policy Paper on Youth Mobility will be presented at the next Agora Asturias to be ratified.

Youth rights are at a stake, and we, European citizens, need to do as much as we can (and a bit more) to make sure we build up the Europe we want to live in.

You can read AEGEE-Europe Reaction to the Council Proposal for the Revision of the Visa Directive here.

Written by Alfredo Sellitti, AEGEE-Salerno, Policy Officer on Youth Mobility

Every five years, a new European Commission (EC), consisting of 28 Commissioners (one from each EU country), is elected. The current Commission’s term, presided by José Manuel Barroso from Portugal, is running until the 31st of October 2014, after which it will be time for a new term headed by Jean-Claude Juncker from Luxembourg. The President is nominated by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament, but the Commissioners will be chosen by the President, although the Parliament has to approve his choices. Suggestions for these candidates are made by the Governments of the Member States, after which Juncker can reject or accept them.

Soon after his election, Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his concerns about the fact that rumors about potential Commissioners were almost all about men. Over the past ten years around one-third of the European Commissioners have been women, largely because Barroso insisted on this, but the fear rose that this would change this year. Therefore, he urged the national governments of Member States to bring more women forward, promising to reward those that do so with a big portfolio or vice-presidency, since he “doesn’t believe that a Commission with only two or three women would be credible or legitimate”.

One day later, the current female Commissioners sent a letter to Juncker, supporting his “call for the Member States to support more women as new Commissioners”. In this letter, they noted that it had become through research that large organisations perform better with a diverse leadership, which corresponds with their own experiences. Next to this, they expressed the feeling that the European Commission was “committed to making continual progress towards gender equality.” They too therefore urge the Member States to nominate at least ten female Commissioners, because “you [Juncker, red.] deserve a flying start – and with ten or more female Commissioners in your team you will get it.”

With this letter, the #TenOrMore/#10ormore campaign was started, urging the Member States to give Juncker this flying start by nominating at least ten female Commissioners. One of the contributors to this campaign is Neelie Kroes, who is still a Commissioner at the moment. Through different tweets, she asked attention for the lack of female nominations, and expressed her doubts about the many nominations of former Prime Ministers. As she explains: “Former Prime Ministers make up 0,0000001% of the European Union population, yet more of them are nominated as European Commissioners than the 51% of women!”

With small success, because the campaign lead to different suggestions for female Commissioners, sometimes even done by the national newspapers, supporting the call for more women in the European Commission. However, the definite decision was up to the national governments, who so far have officially nominated three women, namely Véra Jourová for Czech, Federica Mogherini for Italy and Cecilia Malström for Sweden. Next to this, it was announced on the 6th of August that Bulgaria had nominated another female Commissioner: Kristalina Georgieva. Slovenia did not nominate one candidate but a list of proposals, on which also two female candidates were  named.

Not all countries have officially announced their nomination, but since there are only five countries left, the new European Commission will have a maximum of eight female Commissioners. However, the European Parliament, who has to approve or reject the new team in October, has threatened to reject a European Commission with less than ten women, putting pressure on the Governments of the Member States to come forward with female candidates, who there should be enough of as the different suggestions so far have shown.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

In May 2014 a new tool to rank universities got published, under the name U-multirank. With seed funding from the European Union, a consortium headed by Dr. Frans van Vught of the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) and Dr. Frank Ziegele of the Centre for Higher Education (CHE) developed a tool that covers more than 850 higher education institutions, 1200 faculties and 5000 study programmes from 70 countries around the world. AEGEE was involved in the creation of this tool, so the AEGEEan spoke to Miguel Gallardo Albajar (Comité Directeur) to hear more.

First of all, we wondered what exactly makes this tool an important invention for AEGEEans. “For AEGEE members, and students in general, U-multirank is a very useful tool when planning where to study”, Miguel says. “You can find which university matches your needs best, and then apply for a master there or go on Erasmus”. Because the tool allows everyone to elaborate their own comparison using the indicators that suit their needs best, a good choice is sure to be found. Next to this, the tool also pays attention to indicators that are often ignored or forgotten, like the opinion of students and the focus on internationalization.

By being a part of the Advisory Board and contributing with feedback in different phases with special attention to mobile students, AEGEE helped developing the tool, which is currently still in its first phase. “There are next steps coming, and we are very happy to continue being part of the U-multirank team”, Miguel says. “The information gathering is a responsibility of the universities, but I think in some cases AEGEE could partner with them to help in this task. Why not?”

Next to this project, AEGEE is also a partner of other projects supported by the European Commission, like IEREST (creating an educational tool to improve the intercultural education of Erasmus students) and COY (recognition of Youth Workers Competence), and leading the EVA-project, which assesses the role of mobility programmes, such as Erasmus, in developing an active citizen attitude.

Want to find more about the U-multirank tool to pick your abroad studies? Check out their website!

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Once again, AEGEE-Europe did it! Our organization is now part of the Steering Committe of The European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL) and it’s represented by Lucille Rieux, member of the Comité Directeur, from whom we took an interesting interview in order to find out more about this new great achievement.

The AEGEEan: First of all, congratulations to AEGEE-Europe for this great achievement! Tell us more about this collaboration. How did it all start?

Lucille Rieux: Behind those strange letters “EUCIS-LLL”, lies actually a pretty simple vision: this Network is striving for a comprehensive and universal vision of Education, which is not limited to formal Education and encompasses also Non Formal, Informal and Lifelong learning. EUCIS-LLL is the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning, and is one of the main interlocutor of the European Institutions, regarding Education and life long learning issues. AEGEE has been a member of EUCIS-LLL for several years already, and by being a member, we have been pooling our efforts with other youth and educational organisations, to strive for a holistic vision on Education, and to increase the recognition of Non Formal Education for example. Our contribution was quite limited until now to attending the annual conferences and joining working group meetings of the platform. However, we have realized that it could be a good thing to be even more involved, and to bring our priorities to the EUCIS-LLL platform as well.

The Steering Committee deals especially with administrative matters, so what’s exactly AEGEE’s role in this?

Well, the Steering Committee doesn’t really deal with administrative matters. EUCIS-LLL doesn’t have the same structure as AEGEE, and they have a paid secretariat, here in Brussels, who deals with administrative work; The Steering Committee’s role is rather to define the priorities and the vision of the platform and to make the political decisions regarding the topics of the conferences and meetings that EUCIS is organizing. AEGEE will be represented by me, and I will then join the Steering Committee meetinga which take place in Brussels.

AEGEE-Europe is part of the board for the next 3 years, but what are the most urgent issues to come to grips with during the next year?

Indeed, we have been elected for 3 years, which has the advantage of giving some continuity to our work on the platform. The most urgent issues that we will be dealing with, are definitely the new European programes for 2014-2020. EUCIS-LLL will try to strengthen the voice of the civil society and make sure that our needs are answered (for example, lobbying for administrative grants for Youth organisations, being involved in the manual guide etc). In the current context, one of the priority is the recognition and validation of Non Formal and Informal Education/learning (NFE). There is a “momentum”, since in December 2012, the European Commission published a recommendation on “validation of the non formal and informal learning” and there is an interest from the European Institution, but still a huge gap to make them understand the impact of NFE and the need to recognize it further.

How would AEGEE  benefit from this new collaboration?

Basically, by being involved in the Steering Committee, AEGEE will have more space for pushing and strengthening the youth voice in the field of education. We will benefit from the network also as EUCIS-LLL is gathering more than 40 organisations active in the field of education and life long learning. It will enable us to create bridges with other organisation and to more easily join common initiative on the European level. On local level of course, the impact of AEGEE being part of the steering committee is a bit less visible, but yet, I am confident that AEGEE will disseminate to the members in a very transparent way, the opportunities which will be given to us.

What are the expectations of AEGEE-Europe, focusing on lifelong learning?

Well, from AEGEE-Europe, in a European context, we hope that the vision of Education and learning will finally be understood as a life long process, and support will be given to learning providers, even though they are not from the formal education system. It is high time the European Institutions provide a framework to understand and validate further Non Formal, Informal and Vocational learning. On the other hand, AEGEE-Europe also expects the network to be involved in those issues. Indeed, education is one of our core topics, due to our identity (representing young people and especially students) however, we do expect the network to take the lead on those issues and to bring back the topic of Education in AEGEE’s daily activities, by increase awareness of life long learning among our members but also to develop activities or projects on those issues. AEGEE has to be one of the main stakeholders in order to defend a vision of Education outside the classroom, since we have a big experience in this field!

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca , AEGEE-Torino

New Year is the time of new beginnings. Following this beautiful tradition, AEGEE-Europe has decided to start the year on a new track in a new house.

The old AEGEE office is well known for its bad condition. 15 different CDs, numerous Working Group meetings and endless AEGEEans from all over Europe have simply worn out the place. It is literally falling apart in some places, letting in the cold, letting go of the warmth and simply not meeting the requirements for living and working there. Besides, sharing one shower with eight or nine people is just one big joke. As the landlord is not willing to renovate it, after the decision accepted at Agora Budapest 2012, the CD was allowed to start looking for their new home away from home. They found it! It’s located at Rue de Noyer 55, 1000, Brussels. The moving date is already set – first weekend of February!

The moving plans are not set yet, but we can already give away some secrets. On the sad note, unfortunately the cute bunnies will not be moving. They will be given away to a farm where they will get to play with more of their kind. On the good note, some of the decorations will definitely be moved. The new house will have a separate room for all the stickers, so there will be no need to glue them around the post box, on doors or ceilings.

The new house is located in a very nice residential area with everything needed just minutes away, including a supermarket, a bus stop, bicycle stops,a  post office, a night shop and, of course, a kebab place. The only disappointment of some members is the absence of a pool. Quick research of the redaction has shown that there is a substantial number of houses with pools. Why the CD opted for one without will remain one of the mysteries in AEGEE history.

It is great though that the beautiful tree made by Alma Mozgovaja will also find a new home in the new house. The beautiful tradition set by the old CD will live on. As no pictures apart from the Google View are available, we’d like to present the new house to you in numbers:

– 5 minutes away from European Commission and 10-15 minutes by foot from the European Parliament;

– 4 floors and at least twice as wide as the old house;

– 9 rooms with 2 rooms given for sub-rent to AEGEEans;

– 2 big bathrooms and 3 toilets;

– 1 BIG garden;

– 100% clarity with the new landlord as to what AEGEE is and what the house will be used for;

– 1 new set of rules as to how the keep the house looking good.

Written by Olga Volovyk, AEGEE-Kyiv