EU rejects calls to readmit Scotland to Erasmus scheme

LONDON — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has ruled out allowing Scotland to stay in the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme following the U.K.’s decision to leave the program after Brexit.

At least 145 MEPs signed a letter in January asking the Commission for a fix to allow Scotland and Wales to rejoin Erasmus+, citing a “pronounced aspiration” from the devolved administrations. Northern Irish students have been allowed to continue to participate in the EU program thanks to Irish government funding.

Von der Leyen said that Mariya Gabriel, the EU commissioner for education and research, had met with her Scottish counterpart Richard Lochhead, who was “keen to explore options for Scottish participation.”

But in her response to the MEPs, released Tuesday, the Commission president said the only way for a nation within the U.K. to participate again is for the U.K. to associate with Erasmus+ “as a whole.”

“As one constituent nation of the UK, association to Erasmus+ is not possible for Scotland, separately. The only possibility for the UK is to associate as a whole, or not at all,” she wrote.

“The EU offered the United Kingdom full association to the Erasmus+ programme in exchange for the standard financial contribution from third countries participating in Union programmes,” the Commission president wrote. “Following a year of constructive negotiations with the UK government, the decision was made in London not to pursue UK association to Erasmus+.”

Terry Reintke, a German Green MEP who spearheaded the original letter to the Commission, said MEPs will organize a debate on the issue in the European Parliament. “We will continue to explore how Scotland and Wales could stay in Erasmus+,” she tweeted.

Earlier this month, the U.K. government launched the Turing scheme, a domestic replacement to Erasmus, with an initial £100 million in funding.

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