Europe is giving away tens of thousands of free train tickets to teenagers. Young people who want to discover Europe in this way next year can report in Brussels from today.
They can do their trip of up to 30 days, between March 2022 and February 2023, alone or in a group of up to five. The total of 60,000 tickets are primarily intended for the train, but can also apply to buses, ferries or, in exceptional cases, the plane. In this way, Brussels wants to prevent discrimination against islanders. Registration started today at 12:00 noon and will last until 12:00 noon on 26 October.
“I am pleased that we are giving 60,000 young people the opportunity to discover the riches of their continent,” said EU Commissioner for Youth and Education, among others, Mariya Gabriel, who also coordinates 2022 as the European Year of Youth. “They can catch a train, broaden their horizons and meet other Europeans.”
Quiz
The registration is open to those born between July 1, 2001 and December 31, 2003. Exceptionally, 19 and 20-year-olds participate in this round because they were not discussed earlier due to corona. Interested parties should take a multiple choice quiz with questions about the EU and EU youth programmes, and estimate how many young people will enroll in DiscoverEU this year. Brussels ensures that the tickets are distributed fairly (by population size) among the member states.
The Commission launched DiscoverEU in 2018 at the suggestion of the European Parliament, as part of the successful Erasmus student exchange programme. In 2018/19, 350,000 applicants applied for the 70,000 tickets available at the time. Young people who had never met before visited cities and stayed together. Two-thirds of them made their first foreign train journey, many had never traveled without their parents.
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