The EU Commission is sending a particularly large number of young people on trips this year: instead of the previous 60,000 train tickets, this year 70,000 tickets are available through the youth travel program “DiscoverEU”, which was launched in 2018. This was announced by Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.
These tickets are Interrail passes that allow holders to take a certain number of train journeys in large parts of Europe within 30 days. The ticket is valid throughout the EU with the exception of Malta and Cyprus, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Great Britain, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Switzerland, Serbia and Turkey.
DiscoverEU is part of the Erasmus Plus program and has a budget of 29 million euros, funded by the European Parliament. 18-year-old EU citizens and, new this year, people of the same age from Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Serbia, North Macedonia and Turkey can apply for one of the tickets. You have to answer half a dozen questions about European history and culture. The European Commission will select the winners of the tickets based on the responses from the applicants. They then have one year from July to begin their journey.
Anyone who receives such a ticket can request a voucher code. This gives friends and family members a 10% discount on Interrail tickets if they want to accompany DiscoverEU travelers. Start of the current application round is on April 7th, it lasts two weeks from then on. Applicants from Germany will presumably have a good 10,000 tickets, and those from Austria around 1,200. In the last round of applications last October, around 55,000 18-year-olds from Germany and almost 10,000 from Austria took part.
Also new, for the first time, winners of the DiscoverEU Passports will receive a card that also offers them discounts on grocery purchases to make travel more affordable. But also ordinary ones Interrail tickets offer a whole range of benefitsincluding for accommodation, entrance fees, city tours, restaurants, bike rental and luggage storage.
In addition, an online platform for DiscoverEU participants will be set up, allowing them to stay connected with each other. The aim of the program is to help young people “become more independent, perfect their social skills and adopt European values”, as stated in the Information of the company Interrail Eurail about the DiscoverEU program.
EU Commissioner Gabriel also emphasizes that inclusion is an important part of the programme. For example, people with disabilities or health problems would receive targeted support and could be accompanied on their journeys.