COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EX-ANTE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL laying down the legal framework of the European Solidarity Corps and amending Regulations (EU) No 1288/2013, (EU) No 1293/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1305/2013, (EU) No 1306/2013 and Decision No 1313/2013/EU
Date: 2017-05-30
Institutions: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission
Subjects: EU aid, EU financing, EU office or agency, international voluntary worker, voluntary organisation, voluntary work, young person, youth employment

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 30.5.2017  SWD(2017) 167 final   COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EX-ANTE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL laying down the legal framework of the European Solidarity Corps and amending Regulations (EU) No 1288/2013, (EU) No 1293/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1305/2013, (EU) No 1306/2013 and Decision No 1313/2013/EU {COM(2017) 262 final} {SWD(2017) 166 final} {SWD(2017) 168 final}  
 
The EU is built on solidarity: solidarity between its citizens, solidarity across borders between 
its Member States, and solidarity in its action inside and outside the Union. In response to the 
political  resolve  to  do  more  for  young  people,  the  Commission  initiated  the  European 
Solidarity  Corps  in  December 2016;  which is  followed-up by the proposed Regulation. The 
European  Solidarity  Corps  aims  to  enhance  the  engagement  of  young  people  and 
organisations in solidarity activities of high quality accessible to all young people as a means 
to contribute to strengthening cohesion and solidarity in Europe, supporting communities and 
responding to unmet societal needs. 

The proposed legal base is accompanied by an ex-ante evaluation, which examines challenges 
at  two  levels:  focusing  on  young  people  and  their  opportunities  to  engage  in  solidarity 
activities  on  the  one  hand  and  on  broader  societal,  institutional  and  organisational  needs  on 
the other. 

The ex-ante evaluation indicated a need for the EU to address the following major challenges 
in the framework of a European initiative for youth in the field of solidarity: 

 

 

there is  a  need  to  overcome  fragmentation  and  provide  more  opportunities  to  encourage 
the  engagement  of  young  people  and  organisations  in  solidarity  activities,  namely  by 
bringing  volunteering  and  occupational  experiences  under  one  umbrella  with  a  shared 
quality approach and developing a visible and broad validation of the learning experience 
gained, regardless of the context in which it took place. There is also a need to ensure easy 
and  equal  access  through  lean  procedures,  whilst  foreseeing  appropriate  measures  to 
encourage the inclusion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds; 
there is a need to ensure that the placements and activities offered by a European initiative 
for youth in the field of solidarity respond to unmet societal needs as well as shared 
quality standards and a common understanding of the acquisition of the knowledge, skills 
and competences to be validated across borders. 

The  ex-ante  evaluation  focused  on  two  options:  1)  to  continue  implementing  the  European 
Solidarity Corps through various existing programmes as it has been the case during the first 
phase launched in December 2016, whereby eight programmes1 have been funding solidarity 
actions, each one through its own legal basis, objectives and budget; 2) to develop a new self-
standing initiative with strengthened focus on solidarity, which would build on the experience 
of existing programmes but would have its own clear set of objectives and ensure more clarity 
on the purpose and scope of the intervention. 

The possibility of using the legal base of one of the existing programmes was discarded due to 
the fact that this would result in a programme with a complex set of overlapping objectives 
and limited visibility of solidarity actions in a broader frame. Furthermore, such an approach 
would lead to the disengagement of stakeholders from the other programmes. 

Thus,  two  options  were  identified,  analysed  and  compared  against  the  following  criteria, 
which are in line with stakeholders' suggestions during the consultations: 

  Accessibility (visibility and clarity for organisations, young people and other 

stakeholders on how to participate and access funding for solidarity activities); 

  Quality (procedures and criteria ensuring quality and safety of placements); 

1   The Erasmus+ programme, the Employment and Social Innovation programme (EaSI), the LIFE programme, 
the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Health Programme, the Europe for Citizens programme, the 
European Regional Development Fund (through Interreg) and the Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. 

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 
Inclusiveness (measures to ensure the participation of disadvantaged young people); 
  Synergy (involvement of and synergies among organisations active in solidarity action 

regardless of their local, regional, national or European scope); 

  Efficiency and simplicity of management provisions and low administrative costs. 

Stakeholders during the consultation process welcomed the new opportunities on offer under 
a  self-standing  initiative  and  new  funding,  whilst  ensuring  complementarity  with  other  EU 
and national schemes. Based on this multi-criteria analysis, option 2 (to develop a new self-
standing  initiative  with  strengthened  focus  on  solidarity)  resulted  as  the  option  that  would 
deliver  better  results  against  all  the  considered  criteria  and  was  therefore  retained  as  the 
preferred option. This option will provide a clear and single access point for organisations and 
young  people  and  will make  solidarity  actions  more  visible.  It  will  embed  a  more inclusive 
approach through a dedicated inclusion strategy. It will provide overall quality of placements 
and of preparedness of the young participants through a series of specific qualitative processes 
and criteria (such as quality label for organisations, training, insurance, etc.). It will bring new 
synergies  between  the  activities  and  their  recognition  as  it  will  put  them  in  one  common 
framework  and  help  create  new  networks  between  people  and  organisations  with  common 
aspirations  for  solidarity.  Option  2  will  also  allow  simultaneously  decreasing  management 
costs while reaching greater effects (more value for money). 

Different  delivery  mechanisms  were  considered  with  respect  to  the  preferred  option:  direct 
management, indirect management or a combination of both. The analysis concluded that the 
latter  –  a  combination  of  direct  and  indirect  management  –  would  ensure  the  most  cost-
effective implementation to reach the envisaged target of mobilising 100.000 young people by 
2020.  The  ex-ante  evaluation  stresses  that  sufficient  and  consistent  financial  resources  are 
essential  in  reaching  the  envisaged  target.  An  overall  budget  of  €  341,  5  million  will  be 
required  for  the  period  2018-2020,  of  which  €  294.2  million  under  Heading  1a  being  the 
financial envelope  of the Solidarity Corps and € 47.3 million  of contributions coming from 
other Headings and programmes. 

The  ex-ante  evaluation also  highlighted  the expected  positive  social  impact  of  the preferred 
option  both  at  individual  level  (e.g.  improved  knowledge,  skills  and  competences  for  their 
personal and professional development; increased sense of solidarity and citizenship for their 
social and civic development) and at societal level (e.g. addressed needs in communities with 
effects  on  social  welfare  and  well-being;  increased  support  to  organisations  committed  to 
solidarity with positive effects on their engagement and on the opportunities offered to young 
people; contribution to other policy goals such as youth participation, civil protection, social 
inclusion,  cohesion,  regional  development,  environmental  protection;  improved  image  of 
youth on some national media). 

Promoting  youth  participation  and  social  capital  is  also  closely  connected  with  economic 
growth.  Increased  participation  and  employability  of  young  people  can  have  positive 
consequences  for  employment  and  macro-economic  growth.  However,  considering  the 
relatively  small  size  of  the  proposed  intervention  as  well  as  the  fact  that  its  impact  will  be 
spread out throughout Europe and not concentrated on one particular Member State or sector, 
it was not possible to measure the real impact in macro-economic terms. Similarly, it was not 
considered relevant to carry out an in-depth analysis of environmental impacts.  

The areas of environmental protection and climate action are among the areas where various 
solidarity  activities  particularly  can  make  a  tangible,  positive  societal  contribution, not  only 
directly  –  such  as  through  cleaner  forests  –  but  also  indirectly  through  increased  awareness 

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and  mobilisation  for  environmental  challenges.  This  positive  impact  notwithstanding, 
similarly  to  other  mobility  programmes,  the  European  Solidarity  Corps  will  in  principle 
generate an increased demand for transport, which in turn can potentially lead to the increased 
emission  of  greenhouse  gases.  This  impact  was  however  considered  negligible  seen  in  the 
context of overall mobility fluxes in Europe.  

The  ex-ante  evaluation  underlined  that  there  are  well-known  close  links  and  spill-overs 
between  many  of  the  societal  demands  facing  EU  Member  States.  While  for  some  areas  of 
unmet demands, such as environmental protection, EU action is prevalent, the responsibility 
addressing  demands  in  some  other  areas,  such  as  social  protection  and  education,  rests 
primarily with Member States and regions. In whichever case, however, the EU has a role to 
play since the objective of the acitvities of the European Solidarity Corps is to strengthening 
solidarity  between  Europeans.  The  European  Solidarity  Corps  will  enhance  the  European 
dimension to solidarity, complementing existing policies, programmes and activities and will 
not  generate  competition  or  substitution  effects.  This  complementary  effect  will  be  ensured 
especially since the European Solidarity Corps will address unmet societal needs. 

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