He said this in Salamanca during the opening ceremony of a conference entitled "Erasmus+: enriching lives and opening minds for 30 years", where he stressed that Spain "has decided to remain committed to a large investment in this programme in the next General State Budget".
In his speech, Jens Nymand Christensen called on the other EU countries "to follow in the footsteps of Spain and help improve this programme".
"We must work together to further recognise the importance of international cooperation on education", he said.
The future lies in greater integration
The Spanish State Secretary for Education, Professional Training and Universities, Marcial Marín, said that the Erasmus+ Programme shows us that "our present and future lie in greater integration, not in dividing ourselves".
He stressed this at an event held at the University of Salamanca to commemorate 30 years of the largest educational mobility programme ever conceived, thanks to which over nine million Europeans have grown by discovering the true meaning of European identity. Almost one million of these people are Spanish.
He therefore had no qualms in describing the Erasmus+ Programme as "the flagship of the European project, which has successfully targeted the roots of the EU directly: its young people". The State Secretary stressed that this programme has transcended European borders and spread to 33 European countries, as well as 157 countries around the world.
Marcial Marín welcomed Spain's involvement, which has been the leading European destination in higher education for 16 years and become one of the countries with the highest number of Erasmus students, with over 64,000 in 2017. Furthermore, Spain has been the leading country in all education sectors with over 68,000 participants.
Over 178 million euros for Erasmus+ in 2017
The State Secretary also said that the programme has allocated over 178 million euros to all education sectors in 2017, a provision that will increase by a further million in 2018 for the international side of the programme with the countries of Ibero-America.
The Erasmus+ Programme has probably been the most successful tool for conveying to European citizens the potential to be gained from cooperation between European countries: how far we can go and the major impact we can achieve when European countries decide to work together.
According to Marcial Marín, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport will remain committed to Europe and Erasmus+. "We will maintain the co-financing being provided to this programme, with special attention of the cooperation possibilities that the programme offers in terms of Ibero-America", he said.
In order to strengthen the social nature of Erasmus+, Spain substantially increased the amount of financial aid received by the most disadvantaged students in 2017 and is maintaining that priority in 2018 by raising the amounts to be received by students with the least resources to the maximum permitted amount.
Furthermore, the State Secretary linked the programme targets to those of the Treaty of Rome, which is celebrating its 60th year: the union of all Europeans, because "Erasmus+ is an example of European integration and clearly focuses on the international environment", he said.
Hence, he believes education centres are the "key spaces" for understanding what it means to be European and sowing the seeds of the values we share - respect, openness, effort and citizenship - to build a common European project.
Non official translation
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte