President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "Every euro that we invest in Erasmus+ is an investment in the future — in the future of a young person and of our European idea. I cannot imagine anything more worthy of our investment than these leaders of tomorrow. As we celebrate the 9 millionth person to take part, let's make sure we are 9 times more ambitious with the future of the Erasmus+ programme."

Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, said: "Just as each Erasmus+ exchange delivers an enriching life experience — both professionally and personally — 30 years of mobility and cooperation have given Europe an open-minded and entrepreneurial generation of 9 million people who are today shaping the future of our society. By putting Erasmus+ at their fingertips, the new App will bring Europe closer to young people all over the world."

For a programme that will support more than 4 million people to study, train and volunteer abroad between 2014 and 2020, the Erasmus+ Mobile App represents an important improvement. It will guide students, vocational learners and young people throughout their Erasmus+ experience. This will help to make the programme more inclusive and accessible to all. The Commission is strongly committed to building the future of Erasmus+ beyond 2020 together with the Erasmus+ generation to strengthen the programme and ensure that it reaches out to an even wider range of young people.

The Erasmus+ Mobile App will allow participants to:

• Easily track their progress in the different administrative steps before, during and after their stay abroad. Through the app, students will also be able to agree and sign their study agreements online with both sending and receiving universities;
• Share and vote for their preferred tips to help others integrate into the local community; and
• Improve their language skills via a direct link to the Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support platform, offering online tutored courses and interactive live mentoring.

The first version of the app is already available for both iOS and Android. New features and constant updates will soon extend it to other groups of Erasmus+ participants and make sure the app also covers the future needs of the Erasmus+ generation.

Since the beginning of the original Erasmus Programme in 1987, 9 million people have benefitted from an exchange abroad. Today's celebration in Strasbourg will see the Presidents of the European Parliament and Commission handing over a 30th anniversary symbolic award for the"9 millionth participant" to 33 representatives of the Erasmus+ generation, one from each of the participating European countries. The award ceremony will be followed by debates on the future of the Erasmus+ programme after 2020, involving young people, Erasmus+ participants and organisations, NGOs, Members of the European Parliament, and current and former Members of the European Commission — including those who contributed to the creation of the original Erasmus Programme.