On 27 May 2026, the European School Education Platform (ESEP) removed external provider courses from its catalogue. If you're an Erasmus+ coordinator who used ESEP to find KA1 courses, this changed the way you plan mobilities overnight. This guide explains exactly what happened, what didn't happen, and how to adapt.
What ESEP actually did
The official statement from the platform:
"As of Wednesday 27 May 2026 courses published by external providers will be removed from the course catalogue."
That's the entire scope of the change:
- Only the course catalogue section for external independent providers was removed
- The ESEP platform itself continues to operate
- Teacher and school profiles, eTwinning, learning content and event calendars remain
- The change is described as temporary, while the European Commission evaluates a longer-term approach
What did not change
To avoid confusion, several things that are not affected:
- Your Erasmus+ funding, grants, unit costs, per diem rates, eligibility rules are unchanged
- KA1 course eligibility, a course's Erasmus+ eligibility does not depend on being on ESEP. It never did. Eligibility depends on the activity meeting programme rules, not on being listed in any specific catalogue
- Existing accreditations, your accreditation status and multi-year funding are unaffected
- Reporting requirements, Beneficiary Module, mobility reports, participant reports all work the same
What did change, the practical impact
The change is entirely about discovery. Before 27 May, if a coordinator wanted to find a Green Education course in Helsinki in July, they'd typically:
- Go to ESEP
- Filter by topic + country + date
- Get a list of provider courses with descriptions
- Contact providers directly
After 27 May, step 2 no longer works. There's no single official European catalogue of external provider KA1 courses.
What coordinators should do
In the short term, for mobilities you're planning in the next 6-12 months:
- Use independent verified directories (like ErasmusCourse) that maintain course listings from legally verified providers
- Go direct to providers you've worked with before, their websites still list their courses
- Ask your National Agency what alternative discovery mechanisms they recommend
In the medium term, for the next planning cycle:
- Build a small internal shortlist of 3-5 providers you trust across your priority topic areas, this insulates you from further platform changes
- Watch for European Commission announcements about future ESEP scope
- Consider joining teacher networks (eTwinning, national Erasmus coordinator groups) where course recommendations circulate informally
How to spot a legitimate provider without ESEP
ESEP's value was that it did some vetting. Without it, you need to do the checks yourself. Any legitimate KA1 provider should be able to show you:
- A legal registration you can verify (VAT number that clears EU VIES, or equivalent for non-EU EEA countries)
- A physical operating address in a Programme Country
- Sample Europass certificates they've issued to past participants
- A track record of past deliveries, even one or two prior mobilities with a real school will do
- A course description with real contact hours, not just calendar days
Independent verified directories do this check for you, but it's still worth spot-checking any provider you'd send teachers to.
Long-term outlook
The Commission's statement described the change as temporary while it evaluates "how to better support high-quality staff mobility going forward". Realistic scenarios:
- ESEP re-launches a curated catalogue with tighter provider vetting
- The Commission shifts to a decentralised model where National Agencies each host discovery
- The current situation becomes semi-permanent, with independent directories filling the gap
Nobody outside the Commission knows which of these will happen or on what timeline. What you can do in the meantime is not rely on any single directory or platform for your discovery workflow.
The short version
- ESEP removed external courses from the catalogue on 27 May 2026
- Your funding, eligibility and accreditation are unchanged
- Only how you discover courses changed
- Use independent verified directories, build a trusted-provider shortlist, and do your own vetting checks
Want to see what a verified independent alternative looks like? Browse the courses catalogue, every provider has been legally verified before listing.