The EU Is Giving Away Free Interrail Passes To 18-Year-Olds

The Interrail Pass is a railway ticket available to European Residents which allows anyone to travel freely throughout Europe without worrying about plane tickets and airports. It’s been in place since 1972, and soon became a rite of passage for thousands of young Europeans all over the continent. 250,000 passes were being sold by the mid-80s alone, allowing you to travel to more than countries. However, the passes now cost up to £440 for a month and with the decrease of use of trains (and the rise of cheap flights), sales have declined - which is why the European Union wants to give up to 30,000 passes to those turning 18 this year.

As the conversations over the meaning and relevance of the European Union is more heated than ever, Brussels hopes that the possibility of three weeks of free travel across Europe can introduce the Union’s territory to a new generation of young people and bring literal union to the Union. The pass includes the possibility to visit 30 countries, with 15 days of travel within a month. The EU states that the ‘trip should be connected to a place with a specific value in terms of European cultural heritage, European sites, places of historic interest, specific social or cultural values and traditions.’ The EU is set to be spending 12 million euros on the project and hopes that through partnerships and sponsorships, it could be able to offer even more passes in the upcoming years, although the project is set to be signed off until 2020.

Despite this, with the UK’s plans to leave the EU by March of 2019, UK residents are thought to only be eligible for the free pass in 2018.

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.