Skip to content
DRAFT OPINION (2026/0196(BUD))

On the General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2027 – all sections

CULT-PA-791038

Committee on Culture and Education · Rapporteur: Hélder Sousa Silva

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull text
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 25 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

The Committee on Culture and Education sets out its budget demands for 2027 for Erasmus+, Creative Europe and the European Solidarity Corps, asking the Committee on Budgets to include them in its resolution. It opposes the Council's cuts of EUR 159 million, EUR 31.6 million and EUR 0.18 million to the three programmes and the Commission's cut to Erasmus+ to create margin in heading 2b. It asks for EUR 357 million recovered from the pandemic period to go back to Erasmus+ learning mobility, plus EUR 50 million for its largest strand, EUR 5 million for youth and EUR 3 million for sport. It seeks EUR 5 million more for the European Solidarity Corps and increases of EUR 7 million, EUR 5 million and EUR 3 million for the three Creative Europe strands. It supports the pilot projects and preparatory actions graded A and B in the assessment procedure.

Committee position. The Committee on Culture and Education asks the Committee on Budgets to include in its resolution adequate funding for Erasmus+, Creative Europe and the European Solidarity Corps, opposing cuts and requesting specific increases for each programme and strand.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Committee on Budgets to incorporate the opinion into its motion for a resolution.
  2. Says Erasmus+, Creative Europe and the European Solidarity Corps need an adequate budget in the final year of the current programming period.
  3. Deplores the Council's cuts of EUR 159 million to Erasmus+, EUR 31.6 million to Creative Europe and EUR 0.18 million to the European Solidarity Corps.
  4. Opposes the Commission's cut to Erasmus+ to create unallocated margin in heading 2b and demands the return of EUR 357 million recovered in 2024, 2025 and 2026 to its largest strand.
  5. Requests an additional EUR 50 million for the largest strand of Erasmus+, citing oversubscription, inclusion and rising living costs.
  6. Proposes increases of EUR 5 million for the Erasmus+ youth strand and EUR 3 million for the sport strand.
  7. Asks for EUR 5 million more for the European Solidarity Corps to fund volunteering, solidarity activities and youth-led crisis responses, including the war in Ukraine.
  8. Insists on increases of EUR 7 million for the Culture strand, EUR 5 million for the Media strand and EUR 3 million for the cross-sectoral strand of Creative Europe.
  9. Supports the CULT pilot projects and preparatory actions graded A and B in the assessment procedure.

Who is affected

  • Erasmus+ participants and national agencies running learning mobility, which would receive returned and increased funds.
  • Young people and sport organisations, targeted by the proposed increases to the Erasmus+ youth and sport strands.
  • Volunteers and solidarity activity organisers, affected by the proposed EUR 5 million reinforcement of the European Solidarity Corps.
  • The cultural, creative and audiovisual sectors, affected by the proposed increases to all three Creative Europe strands.
  • Members of the European Parliament proposing pilot projects and preparatory actions graded A and B.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 159 million — the Council's cut to Erasmus+ in its reading of the 2027 draft budget.
  • EUR 31.6 million — the Council's cut to Creative Europe.
  • EUR 0.18 million — the Council's cut to the European Solidarity Corps.
  • EUR 357 million — funds recovered from the pandemic period in 2024, 2025 and 2026 that should return to Erasmus+.
  • EUR 50 million — the requested additional increase for the largest strand of Erasmus+.
  • EUR 5 million and EUR 3 million — the proposed increases for the Erasmus+ youth and sport strands.
  • EUR 5 million — the requested reinforcement of the European Solidarity Corps.
  • EUR 7 million, EUR 5 million and EUR 3 million — the requested increases for the Culture, Media and cross-sectoral strands of Creative Europe.