EU watchdog backs Commission’s explanation that extra time would hamper successor programme and overload systems
The European Commission acted properly in not granting a second extension to an Erasmus+ project whose university exchange trip was unable to take place due to Covid-19, the EU’s institutional watchdog has ruled.
A grantee under the 2014-20 Erasmus+ academic training and mobility programme appealed to the European Ombudsman after their request for an extra extension to their project was rejected by officials. The Commission had already extended the project for a year, to 31 July 2021, but the grantee asked for another extension due to the ongoing pandemic.
The ombudsman said on 27 July that the Commission had argued that granting the extension to the complainant would mean having to apply the same type of extension to other projects and programmes, and that this “would mean that contractual documents have to be individually amended and IT tools have to be redesigned”.
According to the watchdog, the Commission said that to do this it would have to redeploy resources from the 2021-27 iteration of Erasmus+, and that the overlap of new and old projects “would jeopardise the achievement of the objectives and targets” of the 2021-27 iteration.
“It would mean a significant increase in workload and administrative burden for the national agencies, which would therefore have a reduced capacity to follow up on the activities linked to the launch of the new programme,” the watchdog relayed. “In addition, there would be an increased risk of bankruptcy for beneficiaries, due to further postponement of the final payments.”
The Commission also highlighted the possibility to carry out Erasmus+ exchanges virtually, which should not be hampered by the pandemic.
Having considered the arguments, the European Ombudsman said it had found “no maladministration” in the Commission’s decision and that the explanation given to the grantee was “reasonable”.