EU FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS

• Extra costs must be reimbursed and rules applied flexibly
• Students must not lose an academic year
• EU volunteers could help member states to tackle the COVID-19 crisis

Organisations active in ongoing EU Aid deployment projects are responsible for the safety and security of EU Aid Volunteers, including threats to health. Therefore, organisations are obliged to review their security assessment and decide which steps to take bearing in mind the safety and security of volunteers currently deployed. Organisations shall instruct their EU Aid Volunteers accordingly.

The Commission has taken the following measures:

• National Agencies are authorised to invoke the force majeure clause in all cases where the application of national limitations affects the implementation of Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps projects. This allows them to assess the possibility of accepting additional costs justified by the COVID-19 containment measures. These additional costs should not exceed the total budget granted to the project.
• Deadlines for all planned activities may be postponed by up to 12 months per project. The maximum length of the project cannot exceed 36 months. Several thousand ongoing Erasmus+ partnership projects have the opportunity to reschedule activities that could not take place in Spring 2020.
• Deadlines for ongoing calls have been postponed.
  For information on the new call deadlines, please see:
  https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/news/coronavirus-outbreak-deadlines-applications-extended_en 
• National Agencies have been asked to closely follow the problems faced by participants, especially young people, who are currently abroad so that immediate and adequate support can be provided to them.
• Recent graduates who need to postpone their planned placements abroad will be allowed to take them up within 18 months of their graduation, instead of the normal 12-month timeframe.