Rules of the DiscoverEU call for applications¹

1. Description

DiscoverEU is an action of the Erasmus+ programme (2021-2027). It aims at offering young people aged 18 years old a travel experience that will foster their sense of belonging to the European Union, allow them to explore the diversity of Europe, its cultural heritage and history, connect with people from all over the continent and ultimately discover themselves. 

In autumn 2025, the European Commission and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) plan to award around 35 000 young people with travel passes² and discount cards to explore Europe. The maximum budget for this round of call for applications is EUR 21.730.000,00.

Young people can apply on the European Youth Portal. 

The opening and closing times of the application period is planned from 30 October, 12:00:00 (midday Brussels time), to 13 November 2025,12:00:00 (midday Brussels time). 

The successful applicants will receive travel passes to explore Europe during a travel period spanning over several months starting in spring 2026. In this travel period,  participants will be able to travel for a maximum period of one month. Once awarded a travel pass, successful applicants are considered participants.³ 

Participants will, as a basic rule, travel by the most environment-friendly transport mode. To ensure the widest possible access, the action offers alternative transport modes when necessary and takes into account environmental, time and distance considerations.

In exceptional cases, and when no other transportation means are available, young people will be offered travel by plane. This will ensure that young people living in remote areas or on islands also have a chance to take part in DiscoverEU. 

The awarded participants will also be provided with a DiscoverEU discount card. The card will grant young people discounts for accommodation, visits and activities in culture, learning, sports, local transportation, food, etc. 

2. Eligible applicants

To be eligible, applicants must:

• ­have celebrated or will celebrate their 18th birthday between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2025, i.e. those young people born between 1 January 2007 (included) and 31 December 2007 (included);
• be citizens or residents of one of:
  • the 27 Member States of the European Union including its outermost regions (French Guiana (FR), Guadeloupe (FR), Martinique (FR), la Réunion (FR), Mayotte (FR), Saint-Martin (FR), Azores (PT), Madeira (PT) and Canary Islands (ES)), or
  • the 27 Member States of the European Union as well as resident in one of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) associated with the European Union: Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), Saint Pierre et Miquelon (FR), Wallis et Futuna Islands (FR), or
  • the third countries associated to the Erasmus+ programme: Iceland, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Türkiye.
• fill their correct identity card (ID) or passport number or resident permit number in the online application form.
• ­agree with the Declaration on Honour of the application form.

Awarded participants can only travel if they: 

• start their journey in any of the countries eligible for DiscoverEU (see above);
• plan to travel between 1 day and up to one month inclusive;
• plan to travel to at least one foreign country eligible for DiscoverEU (see above);

Any applicant not fulfilling the eligibility criteria will not be taken into consideration in the award process. 

3. Application procedure

The DiscoverEU application round is open through a specific online application form on the European Youth Portal. It will not be possible to submit an application before or after the application period indicated under point 1.

There are 7 steps in this application procedure:

1. The applicants will first have to pass an eligibility check, which implies that they will be requested to fill in their date of birth, residence and citizenship. If the data do not comply with the eligibility rules mentioned under point 2 ‘Eligible applicants’, then they will not be able to proceed with the next step. They will also be asked to agree to the Declaration of Honour, to the rules of the DiscoverEU call for applications, to agree that their personal data will be stored and processed for the purpose of the DiscoverEU call for applications, and that they agree to be contacted in relation to DiscoverEU by the European Commission and organisations authorised by the European Commission for the same purpose, as well as EACEA, the Erasmus+ National Agencies and Eurodesk. Applicants will have to accept to become DiscoverEU Ambassadors.⁴
2. The applicants will have to indicate whether they want to travel alone, or in a group of maximum 5 people.
3. The applicants will have to provide a valid email address. Once done, they will receive an automatic email from the European Youth Portal in order to verify if the email address is valid. This verification is needed given that communication with the applicants after award will be done by email. By asking the applicants to confirm their email address, the European Commission and EACEA are preventing unauthorised usage of the email addresses by other people.  
4. After validation of their email address, young people have to fill in the application form. First, they will have to give their personal data: citizenship, date of birth, first name, last name, gender, email address, phone number, country of residence, region, occupation and national identity card (ID) or passport or residence card number. Young people with reduced mobility and/or disabilities will have the possibility to indicate their specific needs.
5. Once they have filled in their personal data, applicants have to answer a quiz of 5 multiple-choice questions on general knowledge about the European Union and on other European Union initiatives targeting young people. Finally, they are requested to answer a subsidiary question. This subsidiary question requires applicants to give an estimate answer and aims to decide the ranking between the applicants who responded correctly to the 5 quiz questions. Upon closure of the application period, the answer to the subsidiary question is extracted from the application system. Applicants who have replied correctly to the 5 quiz questions will then be ranked based on their reply to the subsidiary question: their ranking will be determined by the closeness of their reply with the correct subsidiary answer. Applicants will be awarded up to the available budget and ranked following the correctness of their replies. In case of ex-aequo and as measure of last resort, the European Commission/EACEA will apply the 'first come first served' principle to determine the ranking.
6. Applicants are asked to give additional information on their travel plans (i.e. when they plan to start their journey, whether it is the first time that they will be travelling alone without their parents, what they would like to learn from this experience, how they will finance costs like accommodation, subsistence, basic insurance, etc. during their travel and how they found out about DiscoverEU). The information entered in that section is not binding and will not have any impact on the award process. Data collected will be used for statistical purposes and as information for the European Commission and EACEA with a view to improve DiscoverEU.  
7. Before submitting their application, applicants will be asked to verify and confirm their completed application form. Changes to the answers given to the quiz and the subsidiary question are not possible after the submission of the application. Moreover, requests for withdrawing an application will be processed after the end of the application period.
8. All applicants will receive a confirmation by email through the European Youth Portal, once they have submitted their application. This email will inform them about their application registration and it will include the application code and the timetable for the communication of the award decision.

Applicants should keep the application code for any further communication. If an applicant wants to invite people to join his/her group, he/she becomes a group leader and he/she will have to communicate the code to the other members of the group to allow their registration. Based on the code provided by the group leader, the other group members will have to register online and fill in their personal data. 

If applicants have indicated that they want to travel alone, they can still add friends to their application after submission and before the final deadline, following the same procedure mentioned above. 

Please note that group members do not have to participate in the quiz and the subsidiary question, as only the group leader will have to reply to it. However, they still need to fill in their personal data in order to validate their application. Group members need to fulfil the same eligibility criteria. 

A group application will be assessed as one single application. Only those group members who have filled in the application form by using the code provided by the group leader will be taken into consideration for the award. Group members shall not register individually. 

Groups can be composed of people from different citizenships living in different locations.

Only one application per person may be submitted in the same application round. The first application registered in the European Youth Portal will be the only one considered in the award process. Individuals may not apply in different groups. If at any stage, multiple applications are detected, only the first application registered in the European Youth Portal will be considered, and the other application(s) will be rejected. 

Young people who already booked a DiscoverEU travel pass under any of the previous application rounds are not eligible to submit a new application. This will be detected at submission stage and the new application(s) will be rejected. If at any stage during the implementation of the action, applications from young people who were granted a DiscoverEU travel pass under one of the last application rounds are detected, either by the contractor designated by the European Commission and EACEA to take care of the travel bookings or by the European Commission and EACEA itself, the applicant will be disqualified.

4. Award process

Successful applicants will be awarded the travel passes in line with the requirements in Art 244.⁵

There is a quota of travel passes set for each country. The allocation principle is based on the Erasmus+ Programme, key action 1, individual mobility “youth” distribution key.⁶ 

The award process will be carried out based on the residence indicated by the applicant on the application form. In case there are less applications than the fixed country quota, the remaining travel passes will be re-distributed among the applicants residing in countries with more applicants than the fixed quotas.

The residence of the group leader will determine the residence to be taken into consideration for the quota calculation. If a group comes last in the list of awarded applicants per country and the quota for that country is reached, the whole group will be taken into account for the award.

Applicants will first have to pass the eligibility criteria check, i.e. an eligible date of birth and eligible residence or citizenship mentioned under points 2 and 3. Please note that this will automatically be assessed during the application, and data provided will be double-checked after the award by the contractor designated by the European Commission and EACEA to take care of the travel bookings. If, by checking their identity card (ID), passport and/or the residence permit, the contractor detects that the applicant has made a false declaration, he/she will be excluded from the award process.

If all eligibility criteria are fulfilled, the applicants will then have to provide the correct replies to the 5 multiple-choice questions and answer a subsidiary question. In case of groups, only the group leader will have to answer the 5 quiz questions and the subsidiary question. The answers of the group leader to the quiz and subsidiary question count for the whole group, as well as the group leader application’s submission time.

Applicants will be grouped by residence and ranked according to the correct replies to the 5 quiz questions, and then according to the reply to the subsidiary question.

After the closure of the application period, the evaluation committee looks at the analysis from the European Youth Portal for their final assessment.

If there are too many applications (individual or groups) that are ranked equally at the cut-off point imposed by the fixed quota, the evaluation committee will apply the “first come first served” principle to determine the last places.

5. Evaluation committee

An evaluation committee composed of staff of the European Commission and EACEA will meet after the application closure. They will decide on the results on the basis of the criteria set out above. They will assess and conclude on the final ranking of the awarded applicants who will be provided with travel passes based on their replies to the quiz and to the subsidiary question, considering a quota per country, and if applicable the submission time. The evaluation committee will establish a list of applicants candidates for the main, reserve and rejection list. Applicants on the reserve list might be awarded for travel passes at a later stage in case of additional budget, or when successful applicants renounce to their travel pass, or if participants do not activate their travel passes (see point 7).

Based on the assessment of the evaluation committee, EACEA will adopt the award decision with information on the total number of travel passes and discount cards to be awarded, the total budget being allocated to the travel passes and discount cards, the list with the codes corresponding to of the selected successful applicants, the reserve list and the list of rejected applicants. 

6. Notification of results

At the end of the award process, you will be able to verify on the European Youth Portal whether you have been successful or not by using your application code.

You will also receive a notification via email stating whether you have:­

• been introduced as beneficiary in the main list (successful applications) or
• been proposed for the reserve list or
• not been selected (rejected applications).

Further communication will then be established between the contractor designated by EACEA and the successful applicants to prepare the booking. More information can be found under point 8. 

7. Reserve list

Once the threshold for available travel passes is reached, a reserve list is established. The reserve list ranks applicants according to their replies to the quiz and the subsidiary questions and the time of the submission of the application in case of ex-aequo. EACEA may award travel passes to applicants placed on the reserve list in the following cases: if additional budget is made available, if successful applicants withdraw their application or if participants do not activate their travel pass. This mechanism can be applied, up to the complete use of the available budget. 

Inclusion on the reserve list does not create any entitlement vis-à-vis the European Commission nor to EACEA and does not guarantee to be awarded travel passes at a later stage.

Applicants on the reserve list can be contacted by the contractor designated by EACEA to arrange the travel bookings. Those contacted, due to being on the reserve list, cannot claim reimbursement for travels booked or made prior to the invitation, nor request an extension of the travel period.

8. Booking of travel tickets and rules for travelling

The participants shall start their journey in a country which is part of DiscoverEU (see point 2 – Eligible applicants) and travel to at least one country, which is also part of DiscoverEU and which is different from the country of departure. The overall trip can last from a minimum of 1 day to a maximum of 1 month inclusive. The travel period is planned to start 1 March 2026. The travel pass can be used in their residency country only for one outbound and one inbound travel.

Travel passes for the successful applicants will be booked, purchased and delivered solely by the contractor designated by EACEA. Successful applicants and participants should not, under any circumstances, book travel passes or any train, flight, ferry or coach ticket by themselves or via a travel agency not designated for this purpose by EACEA in the context of DiscoverEU. Passes or tickets purchased directly by the successful applicants or participants shall not be reimbursed.

The contractor designated by EACEA will contact and invite the successful applicants to book their travel pass via the contractor. The contractor will provide the travel pass, along with access to necessary information to help participants organise and prepare their travels. Successful applicants will also be granted the DiscoverEU discount card.

This card will give access to a range of discounts and benefits all over the Erasmus+ programme countries. Discount cards purchased directly by participants shall not be reimbursed. 

The contractor will choose the most competitive and suitable transport operators fulfilling the conditions of its contract with EACEA.

The dates on which the participant can travel remain flexible until the travel pass and selected travel days have been activated by the participant. 

Participants will be able to travel: 

• over a period of maximum one month, with a set number of travel days.
• on consecutive days or spread their travel days out over the period of one month.
• to as many eligible countries as they want.

Cancellations of the itineraries are not supported. No supplements or other costs encountered during the journey will be covered by the European Commission or EACEA. 

Successful applicants who want to travel to Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland or Malta should inform the contractor. The quota mentioned in the "Quota per country section" on the European Youth Portal will be applied for those travelling from Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland and Malta. A maximum of three times this quota will be applied for the successful applicants who want to travel to Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland and Malta. The flight tickets to these specific destinations will be booked based on a “first come first served” within the available budget. Successful applicants and participants should not purchase these tickets themselves.

A derogation to the travelling period requirement may be applied for young people living in a country that is part of the European Union or third countries associated to the Erasmus+ programme (see point 2) with compulsory civil or military service.

9. Transportation means

Participants will, as a basic rule, travel by the most evironment-friendly means of transport. However, to ensure the widest possible access, DiscoverEU should offer alternative transport modes when necessary, and taking into account environmental, time and distance considerations. Travel will be in 2nd class. 

Only in special cases, the option of travelling by plane may be allowed and will be organised for the successful applicants. This is the case for those young people residing:

1. In the nine outermost regions (i.e. Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, la Réunion, Mayotte, Saint-Martin, Madeira, Azores and Canary Islands);
2. In the EU Overseas Countries and Territories (Aruba, Bonaire, Curação, French Polynesia, Greenland, New Caledonia, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Wallis et Futuna)
3. In countries/regions which are not accessible by other transportation means;
4. When young people have to travel more than 18 hours via land or sea transport before crossing the closest border of their residency country.

Only their inbound and outbound travel can be a flight. For the remainder of their travel, participants are required to travel under the basic rule.  

Young people from the outermost regions and Overseas Countries and Territories can choose any destination matching the set requirements. Successful applicants who would like to travel to the outermost regions and OCTs are able to do this, if their journey fits within the budget limitation.

Successful applicants who are either resident in Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland or Malta can travel by plane to mainland Europe. They should not buy their flight tickets themselves: the return ticket will be organised for them by the contractor.

10. Value of the travel pass and discount card

The successful applicants shall only receive the travel passes and the DiscoverEU discount card. Accommodation, subsistence, insurance, travel supplements or any other expenses related to the travel shall be covered by the successful applicants themselves.

The basic rule is that each successful applicant will be entitled to a travel pass and a discount card. Travel will only be in 2nd or economy class, mostly on train, and if needed on bus, ferry or plane. The travel by plane may be organised by the contractor in the specific cases below::

• For successful applicants travelling from the EU's outermost regions and the Overseas Countries and Territories to mainland Europe. Once on the European mainland, the basic rule applies.
• For successful applicants outside the above-mentioned geographical zones who have to travel by plane to mainland Europe. Once on the European mainland, the basic rule applies.
• In some specific situations to be assessed on a case-by-case basis (e.g. for selected applicants residing in other islands part of the Erasmus+ Programme countries) an extra journey, might be covered.

For successful applicants with reduced mobility and/or special needs: costs of special assistance (accompanying person, dog for visually impaired successful applicants etc.) might be covered, based on the appropriate documents for justifying their special needs, as required under the national law of the residence country.

11. Indicative timetable

12. Withdrawal and cancellation of the travel by the successful participant

Each travel pass will be nominative and cannot be transferred to another person. The name associated to travel pass cannot be changed.

If a successful applicant declines their travel pass for whatever reasons before the contractor, designated by EACEA, has booked the travel pass, his/her place will be given to someone else from the reserve list in descending order of the selection. Successful applicants are invited to inform the contractor before anything is booked.

If a member of a group (group leader or group member) renounces to travel before EACEA's contractor has booked the travel pass, this renunciation will not jeopardise the whole group. The remaining group members can still travel as planned. However, the person who renounced cannot be replaced. The spare travel pass will be attributed to a person from the reserve list in descending order.

Members of a group eventually can decide to travel on an individual basis, and this will not affect the whole group.

The travel pass is non-exchangeable and non-refundable. 

13. Force majeure

In case a travel is interrupted due to unforeseeable exceptional situations or events beyond the participant's control and not attributable to error or negligence on his/her part, a new travel pass can be awarded. The EACEA and the European Commission will assess those situations with the contractor on a case-by-case basis.

14. Reporting back on the travel

The European Commission would like to hear back from the participants and will encourage the young DiscoverEU travellers to share their experiences and adventures.Successful applicants will become DiscoverEU Ambassadors of the action. They are invited to report back on their travel experiences, for example through social media or by providing a presentation at their school or at their local community. 

The applicants are welcome to join the #DiscoverEU Official Facebook Group. Young travellers will also need to report back in an online survey sent out by the contractor of the European Commission and/or EACEA after their travelling period. On its completion, travellers will receive a certificate of participation generated automatically and highlighting competences and skills gained thanks to their travel experience.

15. Visa

Depending on your citizenship and your planned travel itinerary (non-Schengen area), participants may need one or more visas. Delivery of visa is a competence of involved States. Participants should inform themselves at official sources and launch their requests well in advance at the responsible authorities. Visa delivery can take several weeks and/or months. Therefore, visa requests should be introduced more than 1 months in advance of the planned travel date. The DiscoverEU travel pass will not be re-booked due to delayed obtention of visa, in case the application for a visa is made less than 4 weeks before the departure date or less than 8 weeks before the end of the travel period. The contractor will provide assistance in this regard. In any case, it is the participants’ responsibility to have their documents ready before they travel.

The European Commission, EACEA and the contractor are not in a position to influence the decisions of national authorities concerning visa.

The issuing costs of the visa will be covered by DiscoverEU. 

When health insurance is a mandatory requirement for obtaining a visa, it will be provided by the contractor. The related costs will be covered by DiscoverEU.  

16. Insurance

The participants are advised to acquire appropriate health and travel insurance for the whole duration of the travel. Basic health insurance coverage is usually provided by the participant's national health insurance during his/her travel through the European Health Insurance Card. 

However, the coverage of the European Health Insurance Card or private health insurance may not include all possible cases, especially if repatriation or specific medical intervention is needed. In those cases, a complementary insurance is advisable.  

17. Disclaimer

The European Commission, EACEA and its contractor will only provide for the travel passes, the DiscoverEU discount card, where applicable the visa issuing costs and related insurance costs as explained above. In exceptional cases and if approved in advanced by EACEA, costs related to special needs, reduced mobility, travel interruptions due to force majeure, or similar can be considered. Accommodation, subsistence, basic insurance, travel supplements or any other expenses related to the travel shall be covered by the successful applicants themselves.

The European Commission, EACEA and its contractor, shall not be held liable for any damage caused or sustained by the participants, including any damage caused to or by third parties as a consequence of or during the implementation of the subsidised activities.

The European Commission, EACEA and its contractor shall not be held liable for any material, non-material or physical damage suffered by the participants or any accompanying person in case of special needs in the course of their journey or during their stay.

The desired travel is subject to constraints related to budget, time, and travel passes and discount cards available. Therefore, it can be subject to change, and the external contractor designated by the European Commission and EACEA cannot guarantee that the desired travel can be accomplished.

The successful applicants are advised to acquire appropriate health and travel insurance for the whole duration of the travel. Basic health insurance coverage is usually provided by the participant's national health insurance during his/her DiscoverEU travel through the European Health Insurance Card. However, the coverage of the European Health Insurance Card or private health insurance may not include all possible cases, especially if repatriation or specific medical intervention is needed. In those cases, a complementary insurance is advisable.

The European Commission and EACEA reserves the right to modify the rules set up under points 10 and 11 in case of exceptional circumstances.

18. Applicable law

This call for applications is governed by EU law. The Court of Justice of the European Union shall have sole jurisdiction to hear any dispute between the Union and any applicant or participant concerning the interpretation, application or validity of the rules of this call for applications, if such dispute cannot be settled amicably.

19. Data protection

Data requested will only be used to award applicants with travel passes, enabling to book the travel tickets and provide them with services associated to DiscoverEU like the DiscoverEU Learning Cycle or DiscoverEU promotion campaigns. The participant can in this case be contacted by the European Commission and organisations authorised by the European Commission as well as EACEA, Erasmus+ National Agencies and Eurodesk.

Any personal data will be processed by the European Commission and EACEA under the Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 (repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001) and according to the ‘notifications of the processing operations’ to the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the European Commission (publicly accessible in the DPO register). Such data will be processed by the "data controllers" of the European Commission and EACEA for the purposes of the call for applications, implementation and follow-up or protecting the financial interests of the EU.

The Specific Privacy Statement of the European Youth Portal and the DiscoverEU Data Protection Notice explain the way in which the action uses the personal data and the way in which the privacy of this data is being protected. 

The applicants and participants have the right to have recourse at any time to the European Data Protection Supervisor.

20. Complaints

A complaint form will be available on the website of the contractor designated by the European Commission and EACEA to arrange the travel bookings. Successful applicants will be informed about this possibility when booking their passes.

¹ The English original prevails to all other languages translated. The same applies to other DiscoverEU information and documents published on the European Youth Portal.

² A travel pass is a ticket that allows a passenger to take either a certain number of pre-purchased trips or unlimited trips within a fixed period of time in a defined geographical area.

³ Young people applying on the European Youth Portal are referred to as ‘applicants’. If their application is successful, they are designated ‘successful applicants’. Once they have booked and received a travel pass, they are considered ‘participants’. 

⁴ Applicants/participants while acting as DiscoverEU Ambassadors are reminded that their views and opinions expressed remain their own and that they should not in any way create an impression that these views and expressions are endorsed or approved by the European Union. Furthermore, they should refrain from acting in a way that is incompatible with the aims and principles of the European Union or of the DiscoverEU programme or in any way that would be unlawful.

⁵ Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast) (‘EU Financial Regulation’) (OJ L, 2024/2509, 26.9.2024).

⁶ See Quota per country.