site.bta35,000 European Youths to Travel EU Free in EC's DiscoverEU

The European Commission today announced Wednesday that it is offering 35,500 18-year-olds a chance to travel across the EU free of charge next year to explore it, under the DiscoverEU initiative.

Applicants must be born between January 1 and December 31, 2006 and must first answer questions about the EU on the European Youth Portal. The call is open until October 16 at 13.00 Bulgarian time and is open to young people from EU and Erasmus+ countries, including Iceland, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Turkiye, the Commission said.

Those selected will thus have the opportunity to travel across Europe for up to 30 days, between March 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026, and can prepare their own itineraries, or join common programmes focusing on physical and mental health, or on architecture, music, visual arts, theatre, fashion and design, or visit cities that aim to be more accessible to people with disabilities. 

The EC started offering free Europe-wide trips to 18-year-olds in 2018 and since then over 1.3 million young people have applied for the 319,000 travel spots available. This is an incredible opportunity for young people to broaden their horizons, to draw on Europe's rich diversity and to build cross-border links, said the EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova.