Erasmus Programme

The Erasmus Programme is a student exchange programme in the European Union established in 1987. Next to the EU Member States, the programme also involves 6 non-EU associated countries. These countries are North Macedonia, Serbia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey.

Since 1987, a wide variety of actions related to education have been integrated in the programme. The programme's objective is to promote transnational learning mobility and to boost innovation. This objective is achieved by the following three actions:

1. Learning mobility of individuals
2. Cooperation among institutions and organisations
3. Support to develop policies and cooperation

When the programme was adopted in 1987, the European Commission supported pilots for student exchanges for some years. Between 1987 and 2006, more than two million students benefited from the Erasmus Programme. In these years, the Erasmus Programme was part of the Socrates Programme. From 2007 this programme was replaced by the Lifelong Learning Programme. In 2014 the Erasmus+ programme was introduced.

35th anniversary

35 years after the official introduction of the Erasmus Programme, the European Union commemorated this by minting a 2 euro commemorative series. This 2 euro commemorative series was minted by every euro country. The coin was designed by Joaquin Jimenez. The design of the commemorative coin features:

• Desiderius Erasmus writing a book: The program is named after the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus.
• Lines linking different points, showing the number ‘35’: Meaning all colleges and universities are imaginarily linked to each other. The number ‘35’ shows the number of years since introduction of the programme.
• The text ‘1987 - 2022’ and the text ‘ERASMUS PROGRAMME’.

The design of Luxembourg also features the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Henri I. The Grand Duchy was added to the design because the Luxembourg constitution requires it.

You can view all the coins that were minted as part of this series on Coinection.