Consultation on the Youth on the Move Card

Erasmus Student Network (henceforth ESN) is one of the biggest non-profit international student organisations acting in the field of European Higher Education. ESN is present in more than 370 Higher Education Institutions from 35 countries in Europe, counting approximately 12.000 active members working on a volunteer basis with 150.000 international students per year.

ESN works for the creation of a more mobile and flexible education environment by supporting and developing student exchange from different levels and providing an intercultural experience to all those students who cannot access a study period abroad (internationalisation at home). ESN’s vision is the enrichment of society through international students.

ESN has its own student card, the “Erasmus Student Card”, distributed to approximately 85.000 international students annually. The Erasmus Student Card gives discounts to ESN activities as well as numerous other products and services on Local, National and Pan-European level. 

ESN welcomes the consultation on the Youth on the Move card and is confident that its views will be taken into account. ESN strongly believes in the idea of a European Youth on the Move card, since ESN’s ideals are linked to youth mobility and internationalisation. The Youth on the Move card is needed in order to increase the sense of belongingness to the European community, something that the Erasmus Programme and thus the Erasmus Student Card has successfully managed to do until today. Having a commonly labeled card will help the European Youth feel part of a whole as not only will it be officially recognised by the member-states as an indicator of youth (thus giving access to multiple benefits) but will also help towards the enhancement of youth mobility and participation as well as in fostering the European Citizenship. 

More specifically, ESN believes the following:

• The Youth on the Move Card shall promote a bottom-up approach in order for it not to be imposed by the European level (top-down) and to better promote participation. In ESN, the Erasmus Student Card is produced by the International level and distributed to the local and national level. The local member organisations are the distributing bodies; however, the orders take place according to the demand of the local exchange students thus keeping the direct connection with the students but also allowing the local member organisations to act as points of reference and multipliers. ESN firmly believes that a similar scheme should be used for the implementation of the Youth on the Move Card as well.
• At a first stage the YoM Card should offer discounts, available on local, national and international level and as it is unlikely that “one size fits all”, a substantial amount of flexibility must be considered when deciding to which existing Cards the label “YoM”will be attributed in order to make sure that the maximum variety and number of young people will be reached. ESN believes that the Commission should not try to create a new Card but rather use the already existing ones and their already investigated success and potential in order to reach better results and not waste resources and efforts trying to implement something completely new.
• The Youth on the Move card must under all circumstances be available to all students in the European Union. No student should be discriminated on basis of their nationality/origin or on basis of their exchange programme, degree and education cycle or education type.
• Being on the move already has a severe impact on one’s finances; it is therefore very important that the Youth on the Move card is sold within sensible limits.
• Regarding the discounts offered, ESN believes that the best positive impact will be reached if the card gives discounts on travel. This would indeed be suitable for promoting young Europeans on the move, while further encouraging them to cross new barriers and reach out to new places. This, however, does not mean that other types of discounts should be discouraged; in fact discounts on things such as long-distance phone calls can be a way of reaching another goal of ESN: internationalisation at home.
• There are currently many things in an exchange period that due to their high costs constitute a barrier to the learning experience, one example being compulsory course literature. As this puts a disproportional financial burden on students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the Youth on the Move card should aim at reducing these costs and other relevant ones.
• As the goal is to reach as many discounts, services and benefits as possible for all young people, ESN believes that there should be a hosting online system which will centralise all of them and will make them easily accessible. The Erasmus Student Network has created a one of a kind system, the “ESN Galaxy”, a web platform based on the new Web 2.0 technologies which brings together all the ESN sections, allowing them to communicate and share information in real time as well as access the Erasmus Student Card benefits at all times. Connection of the Youth on the Move Card with modern ICT tools is of utmost importance in order to ensure its eficiency. 

The Erasmus Student Network sees a lot of potential in the proposed action from the Commission and fully supports the initiative given that no resources will be wasted into trying to create something completely new for the member states but rather enhance the effectiveness of already existing successful Cards. 

Youth on the Move Card Consultation.pdf

Youth on the Move Card Consultation.pdf (207.8 KB)