Debate: European Solidarity Corps Programme
Date: TUESDAY, 18 MAY 2021
Speaker: Michaela Šojdrová
Country: Greece
Language: EN

Allow me to present this programme and its development. The European Solidarity Corps succeeded the European Voluntary Service programme, which was a part of Erasmus+ for 20 years until 2017. Then the programme went through a three—year pilot parent and was transformed with the new title, European Solidarity Corps, and new activities. Of course, the last year of this period, 2020, was harried by the pandemic. However, despite this crisis we have managed to complete the work on the programme in close cooperation with many organisations, stakeholders at EU and national level. They were motivated by good experience with the pilot phase until 2020, during which almost 50 000 participants in the programme participated. So now, we are going to approve the trilogue agreement about the European Solidarity Corps programme for 2021 to 2027. The main objective of this programme is to enhance the engagement of young people and organisations in solidarity activities, mainly volunteering. The participants will have an opportunity to gain experience in volunteering and to start a continuous engagement as active citizens. The participation for the next seven years is expected to be up to 350 000 participants aged from 18 to 30 years.  For the humanitarian strand we negotiated age limit of 35 years and the possibility to engage experts and coaches without an age limit. We acknowledged the specific character of humanitarian activities at the demand of the Committee on Development (DEVE) and humanitarian organisations.  The programme will be implemented within two strands: solidarity activity and humanitarian aid and in four actions: volunteering, solidarity projects, networking and measures for quality and support. The programme will also be available to third countries, for example, to members of the European Economic Area or to candidate countries. Allow me to summarise our priorities, which we negotiated in trilogue. We established volunteering as a main activity. We introduced the indicative repartition of the budget per four activities: volunteering and solidarity projects 94%, humanitarian volunteering 6%. We maintained the clear focus on mobility and European added value. We kept in country activities at 20%. We included a governance guarantee by limiting the Commission’s possibility to deviate from defined activities. We elaborated on better accessibility and on inclusion. We enhanced the safety and protection of participants through better insurance and requirements for working with vulnerable groups and through precise quality labour requirements for organisations. We agreed with the budget, according to the MFF deal, of EUR 1.009 billion. It’s a good basis for the development of this new self—standing programme. The implementation of the programme has just started, which is possible thanks to the retroactive clause. The first courses were launched in April. I would like to thank the Commission for this rapid implementation. However, we are aware of some challenges, so let me use this opportunity to briefly raise two issues. There is the persisting problem with the IT tools. It’s not new, but it’s urgent for the Commission to fix the problem please. The second one is our kind reminder to the Commission not to forget the possibility to launch the central grants for European umbrella organisations. Excuse me, I had to mention all these details because they are important for participants. But in the end, I would like to express gratitude for what we have achieved together. I would like to thank all shadow rapporteurs: Domènec Ruiz Devesa, Irena Joveva, Niklas Nienaß, Elżbieta Kruk, Alexis Georgoulis. Also, our Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) Chair, Sabine Verheyen, to the Committee on Development (DEVE) rapporteur, Ms Beata Kempa, and of course the CULT advisers, the Council Presidency and the Commission, especially Commissioner Gabriel. I’m looking forward to good cooperation in order to develop this programme and to meet the expectations of the beneficiaries. So, new stage of the programme is coming.