The Regional Director for Youth stressed the new Community programme "Erasmus+/Youth in Action" will become the "cornerstone and financial leverage in the development of projects intended to promote intercultural experiences, new working methods and the establishment of new links with the outside world."

Pilar Damião spoke at an information session on this new Community programme, an event promoted by the Regional Directorate for Youth in partnership with the National Agency for Management of Erasmus+/Youth in Action programme. The government official stressed that the initiative, which brought together forty participants, allowed "a better understanding of the new EU program for the area of youth and non-formal education."

The Regional Director for Youth stated that these initiatives "are in line with the strategy of the Government to boost the internationalisation of young Azoreans." In this regard, the government official conveyed the Government’s willingness to "support the application process, namely the filling of forms and the monitoring of projects."

In the context of the dissemination of the ERASMUS+/Youth in Action programme, an information session will take place at the Ponta Delgada Youth Hostel with the aim of disseminating the Erasmus+ Programme as a useful tool for youngsters, association leaders and people working in the youth area as well as a development opportunity for associations and their members.

Under the "Youth in Action" programme, the Regional Directorate for Youth has been promoting several information sessions and training courses for youngsters, policy decision-makers and associations since January 2013.

These dissemination activities have covered the islands of São Miguel, Terceira, Faial and Pico and will cover the remaining islands in 2014/2015.

With regard to the previous Community Framework 2007-2013, Pilar Damião added that "41 projects developed by Azorean youngsters were approved under the Youth in Action programme. These projects involved the participation of 883 youngsters and represented a Community investment of about 665 thousand Euros."

Erasmus+ is a EU programme adopted in the areas of education, training, youth and sport for the 2014-2020 period.

This new programme replaces EU Commission-funded programmes for the areas of education, training, youth and sport, namely the Lifelong Learning Programme, Youth in Action Programme and other international programmes.