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18-year-old Europeans Have a Change to Travel in the EU for Free

If you are an 18-year-old living in Europe and you want to discover the region without spending much, this is your chance to make that wish come true. The new program called DiscoverEU offers free tickets to selected people who apply for the program. In order to be eligible, young people must apply until December 11, 2018. Selected people will be given free tickets to travel around Europe between April and October 2019.

The first part of the program was started this summer when more than 15,000 18-year-olds who have never met each other before were awarded free travel tickets. Participants made groups in social networks, stayed at each other’s places or just traveled together. The main aim of DiscoverEU is to show the youth what it feels like to be a European, enjoy the cultural richness of the region, and learn more about diversity when meeting different people who live in the EU. The first round of the program was an obvious success, so it was decided to extend it and allow more people to enjoy free travel tickets.

There are some requirements for applicants to the program. They must be 18 years old on December 31, 2018. Participants must also be Europeans who are ready to travel for up to 30 days from April 15 to October 31, 2019. All applications are received via the European Youth Portal. A special committee will select the lucky winners and post the results in the middle of January 2019. There is a fixed quota for each EU country to make sure that young people from all countries of the region can participate and enjoy their travel.

The selected applicants can travel alone or in groups of up to five people. They will be provided with mostly train tickets. The program also accepts other means of transport such as buses and ferries. Plane tickets are exceptional and will be awarded to young people who live in remote areas or on islands of the EU.

The current interest to the DiscoverEU program is overwhelming, so the European Commission plans to give €700 million to the initiative under the Erasmus program after 2020. That will allow as many as 1.5 million 18-year-old people to travel across Europe between 2021 and 2027. The budget for DiscoverEU is €12 million in 2018, and the program has already provided more than 15,000 young people with free tickets. As 2018 is also the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the youth can also participate in different events and celebrations.

21.10.2018

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