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A million babies have been born to couples who met during Erasmus, the European university exchange program launched in 1987, according to the European Commission, citing a comprehensive study of the program released on 22 September. But for French daily Libération, the figure is [a load of rubbish] —
We examined all 229 pages of the study, and nowhere is there a question of babies. So where does the figure come from? From a press release stating that “the Commission estimates that around one million babies are likely to have been born to Erasmus couples since 1987.”
The Commission tells the French daily the figure “is not part of the study, but an extrapolation”. Libération finds the press release makes a generalisation based on a piece of data “drawn from the study”, in which 27 per cent of “former” Erasmus students met their current partners during their studies abroad. But this interpretation “presents several biases”, says the paper: the sample group for the study is “not as large as presented” and is too young.
A conversation with investigative reporters Stefano Valentino and Giorgio Michalopoulos, who have dissected the dark underbelly of green finance for Voxeurop and won several awards for their work.
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