The ongoing public consultation is about how to make it easier for young people taking part in volunteering projects around the EU, including under the European Solidarity Corps.

European Youth Volunteering over Europe

The public consultation aims to:

• remove administrative, legal and financial barriers;
• clarify expectations towards organisations involved in multi-country projects;
• help these organisations build capacity to deliver safe, high-quality activities with real educational value.

The roadmap of it saw a first feedback period back in February 2021, with plenty of feedbacks received from youth organisations. Now the official public consultation is open. It runs until 21st July 2021. The European Commission is asking for opinions and feedbacks on how EU countries can make it easier for young people to take part in volunteering projects in countries other than their own and therefore requiring cross border travel.

There is a questionnaire to fill in.

Purpose of the Public Consultation

The new initiative’s aims to:

• address the obstacles to youth cross-border volunteering and solidarity to facilitate a smooth functioning and enhance the impact of the European Solidarity Corps;
• propose policy guidance to increase the inclusiveness, quality and recognition of the European Solidarity Corps and its cross-border volunteering and solidarity activities;
• support information and involvement in cross-border solidarity activities for young volunteers;
• support complementarity between civic and volunteering schemes in Member States and the European Solidarity Corps;
• provide incentives for mutual learning and networking among Member States.

Fit for Future Platform

Generally speaking, the Commission would like to hear your views on laws and policies currently in development. Click on an initiative to find out more, view feedback, or give your own feedback. Please note that the Commission may decide to modify or abandon an initiative at any time.

Under the whole initiative of getting feedback through public consultations, there is also the Fit for Future Platform. The Fit for Future Platform is a high-level expert group that will help the Commission in its efforts to simplify EU laws and to reduce related unnecessary costs. The Commission takes into account the Platform’s opinions to ensure EU laws help, not hinder, people.

You can contribute to the work of the Platform on the Have Your Say: Simplify! portal. Have a look at the list of topics in the work programme and share your ideas to increase their digitalisation potential, to simplify procedures and obligations linked to labelling, authorisations and reporting, or to avoid overlaps or uncertainty. You can also propose new topics.

Read also

Erasmus+ Project Quality Assessment Guide

Training for Organisation and Staff

L'articolo Public Consultation on European Youth Volunteering proviene da Youth Networks.

What do we ask

Tens of organisations already signed the appeal proposed by Forum ZDF, asking for European policies to be more focused on human rights defence and peace. The three main calls are to:

• Campaign for a European Union that adheres to the European peace project instead of becoming a military power;
• Do not let the European Union provide arms to states that wage war or violate human rights to ward off refugees and migration;
• Increase the funds of the European Union for the promotion of non-violent conflict transformation and human rights.

The budget

The new European defence fund has a proposed budget of EUR 13 billion for armaments research and the development of new arms systems. Moreover, the rise of right-wing populism across Europe is likely to push for more expenses in the sector, to build border fortifications and military security policy.

Among the rest, this appeal is to request EUR 7 billion for non-violent conflict transformation and peacebuilding and EUR 3 billion for the promotion of human rights and democracy in the next EU financial framework (2021-2027).

Peace as a value

Nevertheless, the Treaty of Lisbon itself states that “the Union’s aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples” (Art. 3). The European defence Fund goes totally in the opposite direction: it foresees the use of the Community budget for the European Union to finance armament projects and military operations.

Here you can find the signatories and the appeal more in detail.

L'articolo Appeal: save the European peace project! proviene da Youth Networks.