Happy birthday and best wishes, Erasmus!

In 1986, when the Commission adopted its Erasmus proposal, cooperation between European universities was in its infancy. Member States were deeply suspicious – if not outright hostile – towards the idea of European Institutions getting involved in university affairs. It is assumed today that there was enthusiastic support for the creation of Erasmus, however, this was far from being the case. In fact, the opposite was true.

When the Council meeting of ministers for education took place in October of that year, the UK Presidency had drawn up an agreement that not only reduced the programme’s budget by two-thirds, but also excluded student exchanges completely. An Erasmus, therefore, that was not intended to apply to students! This agreement was approved by the ministers.

Alerted by my adviser, whom I had asked to attend the Council, and in agreement with Manuel Marin, the European Commissioner who sat on the Council, I decided to withdraw the Commission’s proposal, as the Treaty allowed me to do. This was one of the rare cases in history where the Commission had to withdraw its proposal on the grounds that its original concept had been distorted by the Council.

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