Do you fancy an interrail ticket – one train ticket that gives you the opportunity to travel through up to 30 European countries on your 18th birthday? As of this summer, you can receive a free Interrail pass to travel across many countries, giving you the opportunity to meet, connect and share emotions with people from different cultures.

 We are pleased to announce that, following the EPP Group’s active campaign for the DiscoverEU project, the European Commission allocated a budget of €12 million for 2018 from which over 20,000 young people are expected to benefit from this travel experience across Europe on almost any train. 

In the long run, our goal is that every young European receives a pass for railway travel within the EU on his/her 18th birthday because it is a life-changing experience that authentically reflects an interconnected Europe and that would help foster a European identity.

 By travelling across Europe, young Europeans would discover how beautiful our continent is. This experience would give them a taste of what it feels like, not only to be Maltese, German or Dutch, but also European. This year’s  pilot project is therefore only a starting point.

For countries like Malta, the programme would cover the cost of any other means of transport to join the next connected member state, such as by ferry

We will not stop here. Our intention is to scale up the opportunity to embrace more young people within it because we believe that ultimately every young person should have the chance to benefit from such a life-changing experience.

After all, eight out of every 10 young people say they are willing to travel abroad and learn through experiences, and one in six Europeans would even take up learning a foreign language if they had the travel possibility, so let’s give them this chance.

Yet one may ask, what’s in it for the Maltese and the Gozitans if there is no railway system? For countries like Malta, the programme would cover the cost of any other means of transport to join the next connected member state, such as by ferry; meaning that Maltese young people stand to benefit like those of other member states from this scheme.

The EU already invested extensively in young people. In parallel with other EU-funded exchange programmes such as Erasmus+, for which we constantly thrive to further increase its budget, young people will have the opportunity to diversify their knowledge, awareness and cultural know-how thanks to the EU Interrail scheme. The project enables the young people to discover the beauty and diversity of the continent. 

This is not a free train ticket but an investment in young people and in Europe’s future. We genuinely believe in young people because they are the catalyst of change and the beacons of freedom and democracy. 

Today, more than ever, young people are the beacon of hope for Europe.  By benefiting from such an opportunity, a result of our work as MEPs, there is a myriad of opportunities to make Europe an exciting place for them to live together, embracing the principles we believe in.   

So, if you’ll be 18 by July 1, you have two weeks (between June 12 and 26) to register on the European Commission’s website, in order to start what could turn out to be a life-changing experience.

We want to make a difference in your life. The European Union is much more than a law-making machine; it is about facilitating dialogue and emotional links between young Europeans.

The DiscoverEU project is one of the examples that this is possible.

Manfred Weber is chairman of the EPP Group and Francis Zammit Dimech is a Nationalist Party MEP, EPP Group.

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