Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what plans the Government has for continued participation in the Erasmus scheme in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Robin Walker
Leaving the EU with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. This has not changed. The Political Declaration includes an agreement to establish terms and conditions for UK participation in EU programmes in areas of shared interest, including culture and, youth and education. It also contains a reference to wider dialogues and exchanges in culture and education, to allow us to share best practice and act together. The Government recently updated its technical notice that provides guidance to organisations and participants on the UK’s anticipated participation in the current Erasmus+ programme (2014 to 2020). The notice can also be found at: https://bit.ly/2GaP28y.
This states that, to prepare for the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the UK Government has been seeking to engage with the European Commission with the aim of securing the UK’s continued full participation in Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) until the end of 2020 and minimising the impact on projects in a no deal scenario. We are considering carefully the draft regulation the European Commission published on contingency for Erasmus+ on 30 January and are seeking to speak with them to seek clarification, and discuss further what they are proposing.
In addition, in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the Government’s underwrite guarantee will cover the payment of awards to UK applicants for all successful Erasmus+ bids submitted before the end of 2020. Successful bids are those that are approved directly by the European Commission or by the UK National Agency and ratified by the European Commission. The Government will need to reach agreement with the EU for UK organisations to continue participating in Erasmus+ and ESC projects and, as mentioned above, has been seeking to hold these discussions.