Brussels, February 2, 2016 – The European Commission has published a report on the first year of implementation of Erasmus+, the EU funding programme for education, training, youth and sport between 2014 and 2020.

The Erasmus+ programme combines seven previous programmes into one single, bigger and more coherent programme structure. With a budget of €14.7 billion over 7 years, the programme has seen a 40% increase compared to the previous programming period.

In 2014, Erasmus+ for the first time funded activities in the field of sport, supporting about 50 not-for profit sport events, collaborations between sports bodies and grass-roots organisations, as well as the first ever EU Sport Forum.

In its first year (2014), Erasmus+ has already proved that the programme is living up to expectations. Just over €2 billion were distributed in 2014 to support actions in education and training (69% of the budget), youth (10%) and sport (1%), as well as the other actions covered by the programme.

Every year, an “ Erasmus+ Sport Infoday” is organised by the European Commission and the Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) to inform potential applicants about the EU programme, its funding opportunities and the EU sport policy background. In 2016, the infoday will take place on 3rd March in Brussels.

The EOC EU Office in Brussels will closely monitor the event, which will be opened by European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics.