A total of 1,562 18-year-olds from Romania have been selected to receive free travel passes in the first round of the DiscoverEU action within the Erasmus+ program.

Since the launch of the program in 2018, over 6,500 young Romanians have been selected to receive free tickets to travel around Europe, the European Commission's Representation in Romania said.

At the European level, 35,000 18-year-olds have been selected to receive travel passes in the April application round.

The registration round ended on April 21, 2022, and attracted almost 69,000 young enthusiasts. The selected applicants will be able to travel between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, for up to 30 days. They will be supported by national Erasmus+ agencies, which organize pre-departure briefings as well as meetings across Europe. Plus, they will also benefit from a Discount card, which will give them access to more than 40,000 discount opportunities related to culture, transport, accommodation, food, and more.

This year marks DiscoverEU's entry into the Erasmus+ program. With this change and due to the exceptional funding provided for the European Year of Youth 2022, 70,000 travel permits will be made available in 2022.

For the first time, young people from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey were able to enrol as well, as these countries participate in the Erasmus+ program.

The Commission plans to launch the next application round in October when young candidates will be able to apply for an additional 35,000 travel passes.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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