The European Commission has approved 60 million euros for social scholarships for students in our country

The Ministry of Education and Research (MEC) announced that the European Commission has approved the requested additional funding, worth 60 million euros, through the Education and Employment Program (PEO), intended for the payment of social scholarships for students. "This amount will ensure the payment of social scholarships for approximately 40,000 students from vulnerable backgrounds in 2026. We estimate that the first payments will be made no later than February 2026. In this way, the scholarship fund in the new year will be, both nominally and in practice, close to the level of 2024 and 2025 (after resizing) and approximately 35% higher than in 2023, with access to it for both budget and fee-paying students," informed the MEC. The funding was agreed following the dialogue between the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Investments and European Projects (MIPE) and the European Commission, with the co-financing of these social rights from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), at the request of the MEC. "This measure represents a decisive step in implementing the vision of the Ministry of Education and Research to facilitate access to university studies and reduce the risk of university dropout for economic reasons, an aspect all the more important in the context of the fiscal-budgetary crisis that Romania is going through," the institution's press release also states. The Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, requested the subordinate structures to prepare the necessary procedures for implementation, so that the first payment is made no later than February 2026, corresponding to January.