The Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for Parliamentary Affairs revealed in Praia da Vitória that European projects developed under Erasmus+ involve "more than 4,100 young people" in the Azores.
 
Berto Messias spoke Saturday during the first session of a series of events intended to promote, disseminate and providing training on Erasmus+. At the occasion, the government official highlighted "the importance of the Azores as a member of this European exchange and mobility network," defending that "this participation should be intensified."
 
"In order to make it happen, it is fundamental that youth associations and entities working in this area apply to existing programmes so that may benefit from the financing mechanisms we provide," said the Regional Secretary.
 
Erasmus + is a European Union programme that covers the areas of education, training, youth and sport. It is in force in the period between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2020. According to Berto Messias, it is primarily intended to "comply with the Europe 2020 Strategy, namely with the major goal for education, the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training and the goal of promoting sustainable development of partner countries in higher education.
 
In this context, the government official mentioned that "the programme has three lines of action for the area of youth, namely Mobility for Learning. It intends to support three types of projects, such as exchanges, European volunteering and training, and networking."
 
"The second line of action concerns Strategic Partnerships, which will allow the construction of projects designed to integrate networks promoted by entities at local, regional, national and European level to support young people. They traditionally involve national and international partners in the pursuit of specific goals in common areas: youth employment, social entrepreneurship, innovation, training, network interconnection, the environment, culture, art, healthy behaviours, intergenerational dialogue, social inclusion or social work," added Berto Messias.
 
The Regional Secretary added that "the third line of action focuses on the Support to Political Reforms. It intends to bring young people closer to the public decision-makers by creating interested citizens, young people with civic conscience, and people committed to solving their present and ensuring their future."