EU Law and Sport

Life Long Learning

The lifelong programme supports learning opportunities from childhood to old age in any and every life situation. It has a budget of 7 billion EURO for the period 2007-2013, and is the successor of the Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci and e-Learning programmes.

Grants and subsidies will be awarded to projects and activities that foster interchange, promote bilateral and multilateral partnerships, foster trans-national mobility of individuals and promote quality in education and training systems throughout Europe.

It contains six actions:

  • Comenius – Focuses on the first phase of education, from pre-school and primary to secondary school and is addressed to all members of the education community in the broad sense – pupils, teachers, other education staff, but also local authorities, parents' associations, non-governmental organisations.

  • Erasmus – Programme for students, scholars, professors, universities and related institutions/organisations (higher education, including trans-national student placements in enterprise), seeks to enhance the quality and reinforce the European dimension of higher education.

  • Leonardo Da Vinci - Programme for apprentices, workers, employees and related institutions/organisations (vocational education and training), helps to build a skilled European workforce.

  • Grundtvig – Programme for adults, teachers and related institutions/organisations active in the field of adult education, has the aim of addressing the teaching and learning needs of institutions and individuals involved in adult education.

  • Transversal programmes – The four programmes mentioned above are joined by a transversal programme, which pursues the following four areas: policy cooperation and innovation, languages, information and communication technologies, dissemination and exploitation of results.

  • Jean Monnet – Programme supports institutions and activities promoting European integration, aims at stimulating teaching, research and reflection in the field of European integration studies at the level of higher education institutions within and outside the European Community.

Implementation of the LLL programme is decentralised. Each country has appointed a National Agency. A European Agency (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency) is also in charge of the implementation of some European projects.