In the current European Union economic climate, volunteering can constitute a viable alternative for our societies, since it can offer everyone the opportunity to bring forward their contribution and gain experience, skills as well as a sense of solidarity and social commitment. Within this framework, youth is one of the categories that stand to gain much from voluntary activities, which can help support their development in terms of education, sport, social inclusion and access to the labour market.

We are now nearing the end of European Year of Voluntary Activities Promoting Active Citizenship 2011, a year during which we have seen many events and actions being organised on this topic. However, looking at the current situation in the European Union, we can see that there are a significant number of differences between Member States in terms of volunteering and there is still much to be done to encourage young people to actively participate and become more engaged, at all levels: national and European.

At a time when youth is one of the categories most affected by unemployment, national governments need to understand that volunteering can constitute a means to facilitate the transition of young people towards employment, since it offers them the chance to acquire skills, competences, while also gaining more confidence and becoming more empowered. In addition to this, the information and learning obtained through carrying out voluntary activities can help to create a bridge towards the education of youth through non-formal and informal learning. Thus, we can see why volunteering, especially amongst young people, could be a supporting factor for reducing unemployment and, similarly, for increasing the rate of people with a high level of skills, as is mentioned in the objectives of the EU 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and the "Youth on the Move" flagship initiative.

Nonetheless, across the EU, policies on volunteering and the level of support for this field vary from one country to another. From recent studies carried out for the European Commission, it is clear that there are diverging frameworks and traditional ways of incorporating volunteering within the national policies, as well as different age groups that are more likely to be involved in these activities in each Member State. For example, in countries such as Finland, Sweden, Austria or Romania, most volunteers belong to the 30 to 50 years age group, while in others from Eastern Europe and Spain young people make up the largest part of the volunteers. This does not, however, mean that we should enforce a single approach to voluntary activities throughout the European Union but rather, that we should look towards encouraging countries to have a clear, coherent and structured strategy in this field.

The adoption of such a framework in each country would enable the coordination of volunteering for young people across several policies, regardless of whether or not we are talking about environmental volunteering, about volunteering and sports or employee volunteering. In addition to this, each Member State should make sure that it has a set of legal provisions or rules on volunteers and voluntary activities. This does not exist at the moment in every EU country and is an essential factor.

Some of these matters have already been discussed at EU level, in the European Commission and the European Parliament. The recent Commission Communication on "EU Policies and Volunteering: Recognising and Promoting Cross-Border Voluntary Activities in the EU" has highlighted some areas for improvement in this field, in order to identify what can be done to facilitate volunteering, both nationally but also across EU borders. Indeed, allowing for a greater mobility for voluntary action by supporting activities that go beyond the national level, making it possible for EU citizens to carry out voluntary work in another EU state, is a big step in the right direction. We want our young people to be able to engage with the multicultural aspects that are the essence of the EU, to become active citizens of the European society, while at the same time enhancing their employability prospects and developing their professional skills. This is an important requirement if we want to lower the unemployment levels of youth in Europe and reach the EU 2020 targets. But, for this to happen, we need to keep a better track on voluntary activities in Members States, in order to identify best practices but also to be able to see how volunteering can complement actions within European and national policies on youth, education, sport, health and employment.

Given the European economic and social future prospects, I believe that it is extremely important for the EU and national legislators to encourage young people to become volunteers, to support voluntary organisations and their efforts, as well as to recognise voluntary work done by them.

sursa: www.neurope.eu