35 Years of the Erasmus Programme

A blend of two defining elements of the Erasmus programme: its original intellectual inspiration — Erasmus himself — and an allegory of his influence on Europe. The former is represented by one of the most familiar portraits of Erasmus; the latter by a web of connections crossing the coin face from beacon to beacon, evoking the countless intellectual and human exchanges among European students. Within the European context, some of those connections form additional stars, born of the synergies between countries.

Fifth joint issue of the European Union. All 19 euro-area states are issuing a coin with the same design on varying dates. The coins differ only in the inscription, which appears in each country's national language.

Erasmus of Rotterdam, after whom the programme is named, stood throughout his life for an educational vision that transcended national and denominational boundaries. This humanist of the late 15th and early 16th centuries maintained close intellectual ties to antiquity — his thinking was deeply steeped in Greek philosophy and literature, he was fluent in Greek and edited ancient texts, which he saw as the foundation of critical scholarship. In Greece, the country of origin of this intellectual tradition, the reference to Erasmus thus carries particular historical depth: the polis as a place of public debate, the ideal of paideia as holistic education, the method of dialogue — all of this lived on through Renaissance humanism and helped lay the groundwork for what the Erasmus programme institutionalised from 1987 onward.

Since its introduction, the programme itself has enabled millions of students to spend time at a university abroad in Europe and, under the name Erasmus+, has since expanded to cover vocational training, youth work and sport. Greece was a participating country from the very beginning and regularly ranks among the states with high mobility participation — both as a country of origin and as a host. Greek universities, from Athens and Thessaloniki to smaller institutions on the islands, are integrated into the Europe-wide network. To mark the Erasmus programme's 35th anniversary in 2022, all euro states jointly issued a commemorative coin, in which Greece also took part.