Erasmus+ is the EU program for education, training, youth and sport for the period from 2014 to 2020. It is aimed at strengthening the skills and employability of European citizens as well as improving education, training and work in the field of youth and sports. The main objectives are that two-thirds of the budgetary resources allocated to individuals for learning opportunities abroad, inside or outside the EU; the rest of the funds intended to support partnerships between educational institutions, youth organizations, businesses, local and regional authorities and non-governmental organizations and for the reform in order to modernize education and training and promote innovation, entrepreneurship and employability.
As EU citizens, your children are entitled to attend school in any EU country under the same conditions as nationals of that country. They have the right to be placed in a class with their own age group, at the equivalent level to their class in your country of origin - regardless of their language level. If you are an EU national migrating to another EU country for work, your children are entitled under EU law to receive free language tuition in your new home country to help them adapt to the school system there. Be aware that the school system in your new home country may be very different from what you are used to. In some countries, for example, children are separated very early into academic or vocational streams. This is why there is no automatic EU-wide recognition of school certificates. In some countries, you must ask the national authorities to recognise your children's school certificates before you can enrol them in a local school.
If you are a student, you may have a chance to do part of your studies abroad or complete a traineeship in a company through Erasmus+.
Link: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/index_en.htm. If you are interested in doing part of your studies abroad, you should first contact your own university. Your home university must recognise your period of study abroad as counting towards your degree, provided you complete the study programme agreed in advance of your exchange. With Erasmus Mundus, you can enrol in a postgraduate degree programme jointly offered by universities based in different EU countries - in certain cases, even outside Europe. You study or conduct research in at least two countries - and are awarded a joint, double or multiple degree as a result. Scholarships for Erasmus Mundus are available for students from Europe and all over the world.
SOLVIT is a service provided by the national administration in each EU country and in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. SOLVIT is free of charge. It is mainly an online service. Although there is a SOLVIT centre in each country, the best way to contact them is via this website.
SOLVIT aims to find solutions within 10 weeks – starting on the day your case is taken on by the SOLVIT centre in the country where the problem occurred.
When can SOLVIT help?
URES - the European employment service associate is the networks established to facilitate the free movement of workers within the European Economic Area, Switzerland is also included. Partners in the network are public employment services, trade unions and employers' associations. The European Commission coordinates the network.
The EU institutions employ over 40 000 men and women from the 28 EU member countries. The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) organises 'open competitions' to select personnel for permanent and non-permanent positions. Besides permanent staff, the EU also employs contractual agents and temporary staff, offers traineeships and maintains databases of area experts.
The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is the first port of call for anyone wanting to work for the EU. Its website explains the selection process and gives advice on preparing for competitions.
Funding is managed according to strict rules to ensure there is tight control over how funds are used and that the money is spent in a transparent, accountable manner.
As a group, the 28 EU Commissioners have the ultimate political responsibility for ensuring that EU funds are spent properly. But because most of the funding is managed within the beneficiary countries, responsibility for conducting checks and annual audits lies with national governments.
Over 76% of the EU budget is managed in partnership with national and regional authorities through a system of "shared management", largely through 5 big funds - the Structural & Investment Funds. Collectively, these help to implement the Europe 2020 strategy.
Recipients of tenders, grants, or development aid earmarked for non-EU countries are published online.
Applying for funding
Can obtain EU funding through grants, loans and guarantees. Grants provide direct support, while other funding is available through programmes managed nationally.
May be eligible for funding, provided they are active in EU policy areas and on a non-profit basis.
Between 2014 and 2020, the EU will provide almost €80bn in funding for research, mainly through its flagship research programme Horizon 2020. This funding usually takes the form of grants, to part-finance a broad range of research projects.
Most farmers in the EU are eligible for direct income-support payments. Around a third of these are given in return for green farming practices (maintaining permanent grassland, crop diversification, etc.).
Farmers also receive money based on the amount of land they hold – again in return for employing eco-friendly farming methods that preserve biodiversity, soil and water quality and keep emissions low.
EU funding also helps farmers train in new techniques and upgrade or restructure their farms. And it is also applied more broadly to improve life in rural areas, by creating jobs and providing basic services.
In addition, under rural development, young farmers can benefit from specific support for setting-up their business as well as from higher support rates for investment they make in the business.
Web address Vaša Europa is created for Help and advice for EU nationals and their family, to learn their rights and get practical advice that will help them to move within the European Union and get information about travel, work and retirement, vehicle formalities, residence formalities, education and youth, health, family and consumers.
On the web site Vaša prilika, you can find a practical guide to doing business in Europe as well as information related to start and grow businesses, taxation, selling, employees, product requirements, financing and funding, public contracts and the environment.
On the Official website of the Europske unije you can find information on how the EU works, the EU in brief, institutions and bodies, countries, symbols, history, facts and figures and various useful EU publications.
Eurodyssée/Eurodyssey is the international youth exchange programme between the member regions of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) that was established in 1985 and has been successfully carried out for 30 years. The programme enables young people to acquire professional experience in different areas (tourism, culture, media, information technology, architecture, agriculture, administration etc.) and besides professional training, it also enables learning or mastering a foreign language. The programme lasts 3 to 6 months and is carried out in about forty European regions that are currently included in the programme.
The Eurodyssée programme is the first interregional programme for young people with the aim to integrate them in the world of work, by offering them the possibility to gain professional experience in a foreign country. The objectives of the programme are, besides acquiring professional experience and language learning, to introduce them to the host region through various cultural activities, to create European consciousness, interregional connection and to enable a faster and high quality employment.
Eurodyssée relies to a network of partners organized between the regions and to the exchange of experience and international cooperation. Regions individually decide about the final selection and number of participants as well as about the programme organization in their area. Each region covers the costs of stay of programme participants in its area and it sends its candidates in other European regions on a reciprocity basis.
The Programme is designed for young people with residence in one of the member regions of the international organization Assembly of European Regions (AER) that participates in the programme. Young people that can participate in the programme are between 18 and 30 years of age, they completed their education (secondary school or university) and now are in search of possibility to acquire professional experience outside their country and to learn a new language or master a foreign language they already know how to speak. The participants must actively speak at least one foreign language.
The Region of Istria, which has been a member of the Assembly of European regions since 1994, joined the programme in 1996 and has been actively and continually carrying it out since then. Until today, more than 158 young people from the Region of Istria participated in the programme, while 117 young Europeans stayed in Istria.
Every two years the Region of Istria publishes a call for the collection of applications to determine the list of candidates who want to participate in the programme.
More information about the programme: www.eurodyssee.eu
Europe Direct Information Centre Pula-Pola is the opportunity that the City of Pula-Pola, in partnership with the Region of Istria, the Istrian Development Agency Ltd. and the Foundation for Partnership and Civil Society Development, used and nominated a joint project under the Representation of European Commission in Croatia.
The aim of this project is to build a new model of inter-institutional public communication regarding the European Union, in order to provide effective support to the citizens for the development of better socio-economic conditions in Pula and the entire Istrian peninsula.
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