APPLICATIONS WILL OPEN this morning for Irish 18-year-olds to apply for a free travel pass to explore the countries in the European Union. 

The DiscoverEU initiative allows members of the European Union who are 18 years old to apply for one of 60,000 travel passes for travel around the EU next year. 

The aim of the scheme is to get young people interested in connecting with Europe.

Applications will open at 11am and will remain open until 26 October. 

Exceptionally for this round, young people who were eligible under the two rounds in 2020, which were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, can apply too.

Successful applicants can travel with up to four of their friends on their pass. To use the pass, people must travel between 1 March 2022 and 28 February 2023. 

Anyone who travels is expected to be a “Discover EU Ambassador” and to “report back on your travel experiences through social media tools like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using #DiscoverEU”.

Almost 70 000 young people have been awarded a travel pass since the first application round in June 2018.

You can find out more about the initiative here