European Youth and Education Organisations Unite in Transnational Solidarity to advocate for Switzerland's Reassociation to Erasmus+

Since 2014, young people in Switzerland no longer have access to the numerous opportunities promoted by the European mobility programme, Erasmus+. European youth and education organisations are engaged in transnational solidarity for a re-association of Switzerland to Erasmus+. The Federal Council's band-aid solution shows a deplorable lack of vision, short-sightedness and inadequacy.

Bern, 4th of May 2023: We are delighted to share that over the past few months we have been joined by various European organisations, ranging from non-profits and trade unions to student councils and youth forums, in our call for Switzerland's re-association to Erasmus+. These 16 organisations include the European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL), the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), the European University Foundation (EUF), European Youth Forum (EYF), Global Student Forum (GSF), Erasmus Student Network (ESN) International, the European Students’ Union (ESU), student unions from Italy (UDU), Austria (ÖH), Luxembourg (UNEL), Germany (fzs), and the Francophone Student Union of Belgium (FEF),  AFS international, YFU international, Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU), the international federation of catholic parochial youth movements (FIMCAP) and World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM).

The statements published by these organisations highlight the significance of the Erasmus + programme in facilitating intercultural exchange, knowledge sharing, promoting democratic and European values, fostering youth responsibility and leadership, and encouraging active citizenship. However, the non-participation of Switzerland in the programme creates several challenges for both Swiss and European youth, making the mobility process less inclusive and smooth. Switzerland's absence from Erasmus+ hinders a lot of young people from engaging in exchange programmes to or from Switzerland. As shown through a statistic comparing Swiss and Austrian realities, Austria has approximately 11 times more cooperation projects under Erasmus+.

The position papers target both EU and Swiss policy-makers, urging the European Commission to fully associate non-EU countries that are willing to participate in the Erasmus+ programme; the Government of Switzerland and the EU to relaunch their negotiations on Erasmus+, further amplified by a demand that Erasmus+ should not be used as a political tool and that institutional and economic issues should be addressed separately from Erasmus+.

We, the Swiss National Youth Council (SNYC), ESN Switzerland, Intermundo and VSS-UNES-USU are grateful for the support we received from our European counterparts. This solidarity demonstrates that the association of Switzerland to Erasmus+ is not just a Swiss matter, but a collective concern on a European level. Furthermore, it highlights the tight collaboration among student and youth organisations in Europe and Switzerland around education topics, thereby further amplifying the importance of a more effective mobility framework than the Swiss solution. Finally, it serves as an appeal to both Switzerland and the EU to listen to and address the concerns of youth and civil society organisations, particularly in matters such as education, which primarily affect the youth.

 

Contacts:

Yasser Haddad : president[at]esn.ch

David Simon-Vermot : education[at]esn.ch