Regulation (EU) 2021/888 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2021 establishing the European Solidarity Corps Programme and repealing Regulations (EU) 2018/1475 and (EU) No 375/2014 (Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Articles 165(4), 166(4) and 214(5) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (2),

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3),

Whereas:

(1) The Union is built on solidarity, both among its citizens and among the Member States. That universal and common value guides the actions of the Union and provides the unity necessary to cope with current and future societal challenges, which young Europeans are willing to help address by expressing their solidarity in practice. Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) highlights solidarity as one of the principles key to the Union. The principle of solidarity is also referred to in Article 21(1) TEU as one of the foundations of the Union’s external action.

(2) Given the significant increase in global humanitarian needs and with a view to enhancing the promotion of solidarity and the visibility of humanitarian aid among Union citizens, there is a need to develop solidarity between Member States and with third countries affected by man-made or natural disasters.

(3) Humanitarian aid volunteering actions should contribute to a needs-based humanitarian response and be guided by the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid set out in the Joint Statement by the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission entitled ‘The European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid’ (4). International humanitarian law and human rights law should be promoted.

(4) Where appropriate, the central and overall coordinating role of the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in promoting a coherent international response to humanitarian crises should be taken into account.

(5) Humanitarian aid volunteering actions should contribute to an adequate humanitarian response that strengthens the gender perspective in Union humanitarian aid policy and promotes adequate humanitarian responses to the specific needs of women and men of all ages. Humanitarian aid volunteering actions should take into account the needs and capacities of people in the most vulnerable situations, including women and children, and people most at risk.

(6) Humanitarian aid volunteering actions should strive to contribute to enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of Union humanitarian aid, in line with the Good Humanitarian Donorship principles.

(7) The State of the Union address of 14 September 2016 emphasised the need to invest in young people and announced the establishment of a European Solidarity Corps with a view to creating opportunities for young people across the Union to make a meaningful contribution to society, show solidarity and develop their skills, enabling them to obtain not only work experience but also an invaluable human experience.

(8) In its communication of 7 December 2016 entitled ‘A European Solidarity Corps’, the Commission emphasised the need to strengthen the foundations for solidarity work across Europe, to provide young people with more and better opportunities for solidarity activities covering a broad range of areas, and to support national, regional and local actors in their efforts to cope with different challenges and crises. That communication launched a first phase of the European Solidarity Corps whereby resources under different Union programmes were mobilised to offer volunteering, traineeship or job opportunities to young people across the Union.

(9) Within the context of this Regulation, ‘solidarity’ is understood as a sense of individual and collective responsibility for the common good, expressed through concrete action.

(10) Contributing assistance to people and communities outside the Union that are in need of humanitarian aid, based on the fundamental principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, is an important expression of solidarity.

(11) There is a need to further develop solidarity with victims of crises and disasters in third countries and to raise both the awareness and the visibility of humanitarian aid, and volunteering in general, as a lifelong activity among Union citizens.

(12) The Union and the Member States have committed to implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals thereof, both internally and through external actions.

(13) In its conclusions of 19 May 2017 on operationalising the humanitarian-development nexus, the Council recognised the need to strengthen resilience by better linking humanitarian assistance and development cooperation and to further strengthen the operational links between the complementary approaches of humanitarian assistance, development cooperation and conflict prevention.

(14) Young people should be provided with easily accessible and inclusive opportunities to engage in solidarity activities, which could enable them to express their commitment to benefitting communities while acquiring useful experience, knowledge, skills and competences for their personal, educational, social, civic and professional development, thereby improving their employability. Those solidarity activities should also support the mobility of young volunteers, intercultural awareness and intercultural dialogue.

(15) The solidarity activities offered to young people should allow for concrete and beneficial contributions of young people. Solidarity activities should respond to unmet societal needs and contribute to strengthening communities and civic participation. Solidarity activities should offer young people the opportunity to acquire valuable knowledge, skills and competences. Solidarity activities should be financially accessible to young people and be carried out in safe and healthy conditions.

(16) The European Solidarity Corps Programme (the ‘Programme’) provides a single entry point for solidarity activities throughout the Union and beyond. In order to maximise the effectiveness of Union funding and the impact of the Programme, the Commission should seek to establish synergies across all relevant programmes in a coherent manner, but without such synergies leading to funds being used to pursue objectives other than those set out in this Regulation. Consistency and complementarity should be ensured with other relevant Union policies, such as the European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027 (5), and other relevant Union programmes, in particular the Erasmus+ Programme, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/817 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6). The Programme is built on the strengths and synergies of previous and existing programmes, in particular the European Voluntary Service, established by Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), and the EU Aid Volunteers initiative, established by Regulation (EU) No 375/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8). Complementarity with existing Union-level networks pertinent to Programme activities, such as the Eurodesk network, should also be ensured. Furthermore, complementarity between existing related schemes, in particular national solidarity schemes, such as volunteering, civic service, and mobility schemes for young people, and the Programme should be ensured to mutually enhance and enrich the impact and qualities of such schemes and, where appropriate, to build upon good practices. The Programme should not be a substitute for similar national schemes. Equal access for all young people to national solidarity activities should be ensured.

(17) In order to align its duration with that of the multiannual financial framework for the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2027 (the ‘2021-2027 MFF’) laid down in Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 (9), the Programme should be established for a period of seven years.

(18) With respect to the interpretation of related legal acts of the Union, it is appropriate that both cross-border volunteering and volunteering that continues to be supported under Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 be considered equivalent to volunteering undertaken under the European Voluntary Service.

(19) The Programme is designed to open up new opportunities for young people to undertake volunteering activities in solidarity-related areas, as well as to devise and develop solidarity projects based on their own initiative. Those opportunities contribute to enhancing the personal, educational, social, civic and professional development of young people. The Programme should also support networking activities for participants and participating organisations and measures to ensure the quality of the supported activities and to enhance the validation of the learning outcomes of participants. The Programme thereby also aims to contribute to European cooperation relevant to young people and to raising awareness of its positive impact. It is appropriate that solidarity activities offered follow a clear and detailed procedure addressed to participants and participating organisations, establishing the steps of all phases of the solidarity activities.

(20) Solidarity activities should present potential European added value and should benefit communities and foster participants’ personal, educational, social, civic and professional development. Solidarity activities should be developed in relation to different areas, such as: education and training; youth work; employment; gender equality; entrepreneurship and, in particular, social entrepreneurship; citizenship and democratic participation; intercultural awareness and intercultural dialogue; social inclusion; inclusion of people with disabilities; environment and nature protection; climate action; disaster prevention, preparedness and recovery; agriculture and rural development; the provision of food and non-food items; health and wellbeing; culture, including cultural heritage; creativity; physical education and sport; social assistance and welfare; the reception and integration of third-country nationals, taking into account the challenges faced by people with a migrant background; territorial cooperation and cohesion; and cooperation across borders. Solidarity activities should include a solid learning and training dimension through relevant activities that are offered to participants before, during and after the solidarity activity.

(21) Volunteering, both within and beyond the Union, constitutes a rich experience in a non-formal and informal learning context and enhances young people’s personal, socio-educational and professional development, active citizenship, civic participation and employability. Volunteering should not have an adverse effect on potential or existing paid employment and it should not be considered a substitute for it. The Commission and the Member States should cooperate regarding volunteering policies in the youth field via the open method of coordination.

(22) Young people’s spirit of initiative is an important asset for society and for the labour market. The Programme contributes to fostering that spirit of initiative by offering young people the opportunity to devise and implement their own solidarity projects with the aim of addressing specific challenges to the benefit of their local communities. Solidarity projects are an opportunity to try out ideas concerning, and innovative solutions to, common challenges through a bottom-up approach and they support young people to be drivers of solidarity actions themselves. Solidarity projects also serve as a springboard for further engagement in solidarity activities and are a first step towards encouraging participants to engage in self-employment and to continue to be active citizens as volunteers, trainees or employees in associations, non-governmental organisations or other bodies active in the solidarity, non-profit and youth sectors.

(23) Participants in volunteering (‘volunteers’) can contribute to strengthening the Union’s capacity to provide needs-based and principled humanitarian aid and can contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of the humanitarian sector provided that they are adequately selected, trained and prepared for deployment so as to ensure that they have the necessary skills and competences to help people in need in the most effective way and provided that they can count on sufficient on-site support and supervision. Therefore, highly skilled, highly trained and experienced coaches, mentors and experts play an important role in contributing to the effectiveness of the humanitarian response on the ground as well as towards supporting volunteers as part of the volunteering. Such coaches, mentors and experts can be involved in volunteering in order to guide and accompany volunteers and help to support the development and capacity-building components of the volunteering, thereby strengthening local networks and communities. Particular attention should be paid to the capacity of hosting organisations in third countries and the need to embed the volunteering within the local context and to facilitate volunteers’ interaction with local humanitarian actors, the hosting community and civil society.

(24) It is important that participants and participating organisations feel that they belong to a community of individuals and entities committed to enhancing solidarity across Europe. At the same time, participating organisations need support to strengthen their capacity to offer good quality solidarity activities to an increasing number of participants. The Programme should support networking activities that aim to strengthen the engagement of participants and of participating organisations in such a community, to foster a Programme spirit and to encourage the exchange of useful practices and experience. Networking activities should also contribute to raising awareness about the Programme among public and private actors and to facilitating the collection of feedback from participants and participating organisations on the implementation of the Programme.

(25) Particular attention should be paid to ensuring the quality of solidarity activities and the opportunities offered under the Programme, in particular by offering online or offline training, language support and administrative support to participants before, during and after the solidarity activity in question, as well as insurance, including coverage for accidents, sickness and third-party liability. The validation of the knowledge, skills and competences acquired by participants through their experience under the Programme should be ensured. The security and safety of the participants, participating organisations and intended beneficiaries remains of paramount importance. Such security and safety should include appropriate clearance requirements for participants working with vulnerable groups in accordance with applicable national law. All solidarity activities should comply with the ‘do no harm’ principle and should be implemented with due consideration for the impact of unforeseen circumstances such as environmental crises, conflicts or pandemics. Volunteers should not be deployed in operations conducted in areas of international and non-international armed conflicts or in facilities that contravene international human rights standards.

(26) The Programme should respect the principles set out in the 2017 EU Guidelines for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child and in Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

(27) To ensure the impact of Programme activities on the personal, educational, social, cultural, civic and professional development of the participants, the knowledge, skills and competences that constitute the learning outcomes of the activity in question should be properly identified and documented. To that end, the use of effective instruments at Union and national level for the recognition of non-formal and informal learning, such as Youthpass and Europass, should be encouraged, as appropriate, in accordance with national circumstances and specificities, as recommended in the Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 (10).

(28) The Commission and the national agencies should also encourage former participants to share their experiences through youth networks, educational establishments and workshops in roles such as ambassadors or as members of a network. Former participants could also contribute to the training of participants.

(29) A quality label should ensure that participating organisations comply with the principles and requirements of the Programme as regards their rights and responsibilities during all stages of the solidarity experience.

(30) Any entity that wishes to participate in the Programme should receive a quality label provided that it complies with appropriate conditions. The Programme implementing bodies should conduct the process that leads to the attribution of a quality label on a continuous basis. The Programme implementing bodies should periodically reassess whether entities continue to comply with the conditions that led to the attribution of their quality labels. A quality label should be revoked where it is found, in the context of the checks performed by the Programme implementing bodies, that the entity in question no longer complies with those conditions. The administrative process for the attribution of a quality label should be reduced to a minimum in order to avoid discouraging smaller organisations.

(31) An entity that wishes to apply for funding to offer solidarity activities under the Programme should first receive a quality label. Such a precondition should not apply to natural persons seeking financial support on behalf of an informal group of participants for their solidarity projects. Obtaining a quality label, however, should not automatically lead to funding under the Programme.

(32) As a general rule, grant applications should be submitted to the national agency of the country in which the participating organisation is based. Grant applications for activities with a Union-wide or international dimension, including solidarity activities of volunteering teams in priority areas identified at Union level and solidarity activities in support of humanitarian aid operations in third countries, may be centrally managed if appropriate.