Regulation 2018/1475 - Legal framework of the European Solidarity Corps - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 250/1

Solidarity among Union citizens and among Member States is one of the universal values on which the Union is built. This common value guides the Union's actions and provides it with the necessary unity for coping with current and future societal challenges, which young Europeans are willing to help address by expressing their solidarity in practice. Solidarity also stimulates young people's interest in the common European project. The principle of solidarity is enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and in the preamble of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

During the State of the Union address of 14 September 2016, it was emphasised that there is a need to invest in young people and it was announced that a European Solidarity Corps was to be established 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, competences and knowledge, thus gaining an invaluable human experience, which is also key for the emergence of an active and engaged Union citizenship.

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 high-quality 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 different Union programmes were mobilised to offer volunteering, traineeship or job opportunities to young people across the Union. These activities, whether implemented before or after the entry into force of this Regulation, should continue to apply the rules and conditions set by the respective Union programmes that have financed them under the first phase of the European Solidarity Corps.

Within the context of this Regulation, solidarity may be understood as a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to everyone to commit oneself to the common good, which is expressed through concrete actions without consideration of return service.

Young people should be provided with easily accessible opportunities to engage in high-quality solidarity activities with a strong European dimension as a means to contribute to strengthening cohesion, solidarity, social inclusion and democracy in participating countries to the benefit of local communities, while improving their competences for their personal development, thus boosting their self-esteem, autonomy and motivation to learn, stimulating their educational, social, artistic, linguistic, cultural, civic and professional development, as well as facilitating their active citizenship, employability and transition into the labour market. Those solidarity...