United Kingdom: Curtice (Univ. Strathclyde), “the British government will not give up Erasmus and EU research funding”

“I really don’t think the British government will want to stop the Erasmus programme whereby, every year, thousands of British students go and study in over 30 foreign countries, including some non-EU ones, such as Switzerland”. John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, plays down the news spread by mass media and social networks, that the British House of Commons said no to the continuation of the international exchange of students. “What happened”, the professor explains, “is that the government did not want to commit to ensuring right now that the Erasmus programme will go on, not because it deems it necessary but because it wants to have free rein in the negotiations with the European Union. That’s why it decided to reject the ‘New clause 10’, the amendment supported by Liberal Democrats, in the legislation that enacts Brexit”. So, Boris Johnson “can use the Erasmus programme as a bargaining chip in the next eleven months, during the negotiations that will lead to the new agreement governing the relationships between Great Britain and the European Union”. According to Curtice, the Erasmus programme will not be the only thing that will go on. “The United Kingdom is also very interested in confirming the European Research Funding programme, whereby many British universities receive funds for research from the European Union”.
Valentina Bombelli