President. – The next item is the report by Marco Scurria, on behalf of the Committee on Culture and Education, on recognising and promoting cross-border voluntary activities in the EU (2011/2293(INI)) (A7-0166/2012).
Marco Scurria, rapporteur. – (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the adoption of this resolution is very important because, until just a few months ago, volunteering was an object of mystery for the European Union. Even though it involved 100 million volunteers responsible for 5% of GDP, the sector did not actually appear to exist.
Then, despite a series of difficulties, we managed to dedicate last year, 2011, to volunteering and we all began to pick up on its excellent potential. Member States that did not have legislation on this issue have adopted legislation, others have updated theirs, many have increased the activities carried out by voluntary associations and, especially at a time of crisis like the one we are experiencing, have assigned an important role – a subsidiary role, as it is referred to – to the non-profit world.
We started off from this point to accentuate the role of volunteering in the European Union, as shown by the report we are debating this evening. We started off with an excellent communication from the Commission, whom I thank for their work, as I thank the shadow rapporteurs and officials of the groups and Parliament who helped me draw up the report.
What have we set out? First, a portal to tell citizens about the volunteering opportunities in various Member States and how to get involved. Next, use of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work and the United Nations Handbook on Non-Profit Institutions with a view to making available comparable statistics and data providing a clear picture of the significant contribution made by volunteering and of the needs of volunteers throughout the European Union.
We want to give volunteering a high profile in sport, particularly at the grassroots level. We would like to recognise the important contribution also made by volunteering to protecting the environment, and to support volunteering activities in environmental education, crisis prevention and management, as well as in defending artistic and cultural heritage.
We support the Commission’s proposal to establish a European Skills Passport, so that the skills acquired through volunteering may be officially recognised, both for professional and for learning purposes. A passport that should be a comprehensive document listing all practical experience, training and soft and vocational skills acquired through lifelong learning, including those gained through volunteering, if desired by the volunteer. We urge the Commission to put this European Skills Passport in place as soon as possible.
We also support the Commission’s proposal to create a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps, which will increase the participation of volunteers in solidarity actions in the context of the humanitarian aid policy throughout the EU.
We wish to ensure adequate and stable funding and establish and simplify administrative procedures, including tax incentives, for the organisations involved in volunteering work, including associations and networks, particularly for small associations with limited resources, with a view to enhancing their roles, activities and achievements as they provide such benefits to society.
As Henry de Montherlant used to say, ‘Selfless acts are the stars of the earth’. Volunteering work has this capability. With its activity, provided free of charge, it can bring the stars onto our earth and plant them firmly into the soil. Our flag, Mr President, is made up of stars, which is why the EU must not fail to strengthen the voluntary sector and its world made up of great little everyday gestures.
Catch-the-eye procedure
Kinga Gál (PPE). – (HU) Mr President, I congratulate the rapporteur on his excellent work, which contributes to reinforcing the role of volunteering in the EU. In this context, I would like to mention a specific initiative that was launched 19 years ago with a view to promoting cross-border voluntary cooperation. This programme, entitled Students Without Boundaries, won the first European Charlemagne Youth Prize in 2008. The programme essentially entails youths of the various peoples that coexist in Central and Eastern Europe connecting without boundaries, travelling together, and strengthening tolerance and mutual acceptance. The leaders and organisers of the programme are all volunteers. I think that exemplary programmes should be highlighted and recognised at European level; one way of expressing such recognition could be, for example, the European Charlemagne Youth Prize. These should be supported by all means available.
Katarína Neveďalová (S&D). – (SK) Mr President, I would first like to thank Mr Scurria for the excellent cooperation in the preparation of this report, and I am delighted that, following the European Year of Volunteering in 2011, we have produced an assessment of what the voluntary sector in the EU really looks like, and we can see where the shortcomings are and where there is room for improvement. We must always, of course, bear in mind the rights of volunteers and their genuine non-discrimination, so that everyone has the same opportunities and the same chances. In relation to volunteering, it is very important to discuss quality, the recognition of voluntary operations and voluntary activities, and also the protection of volunteers as such. We know that many EU countries do not, for example, have a law on volunteering, even though the situation is constantly improving. This is one of the proposals, for example, which we have pushed for in this report. I would be delighted if we could really push through support for volunteering in all age categories in the new EU programmes for 2014-2020, and if we could remember that this activity is highly beneficial to society and that everyone engaged in it is really performing a very worthwhile activity.
Marian Harkin (ALDE). – Mr President, first of all, let me congratulate the rapporteur on this very comprehensive report, and also the Commission on its communication. I know it is constrained to some extent in its competences, but think it has made the most of it. Also, it was very proactive during the European Year of Volunteering, so well done to the Commission on that.
There are a number of points that I would like to raise. First of all, there is an issue about economic and financial consolidation in different Member States. There is a temptation to cut back on the support that is available to voluntary organisations. I think this needs to be resisted because, while volunteer time is unpaid, it is certainly not cost-free, and I think in that context, the rapporteur has made two very good suggestions in his report.
One of them is that volunteer time could be taken as match funding and this would help voluntary organisations, especially in European programmes. Also, in paragraph 46, he calls on the Commission to look at some sort of a mechanism to exempt voluntary organisations from VAT.
Malika Benarab-Attou (Verts/ALE). – (FR) Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European Year of Volunteering 2011 served to put volunteering under the spotlight and to give the voluntary sector an opportunity to put forward valuable recommendations. I congratulate both the rapporteur and the Commission for their contributions on this issue.
Mr Scurria’s report highlights the importance of ensuring that all citizens have access to volunteering activities and have the right to make their own contribution in order to support altruism and solidarity in their local area. Volunteering and community work as a whole represent an antidote to the changes in the labour market and to the risk of excluding parts of the population from enjoying basic goods and services.
For our group, volunteering must not be a new way of getting people into insecure employment. It is about clearly differentiating between the value of volunteering, provided free of charge, and profit-making activities. Furthermore, we encourage Member States to recognise the rights of volunteers and to use the European Charter on the Rights and Responsibilities of Volunteers as a point of reference.
Heinz K. Becker (PPE). – (DE) Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the rapporteur, Mr Scurria, for this report, as he affords volunteering the importance it is due and also really does get the most out of the Commission report. The promotion of volunteering through tax breaks and administrative simplifications is one of the key demands to be met by the Member States of the European Union.
A large number of senior citizens and young people, in particular, are active in volunteering and, as a result, integration into the European Qualifications Framework is particularly important for young people. Let us not forget, however, how large the radius of social activities in volunteering is. With that in mind, I see volunteering as a glue that holds society together.
Emer Costello (S&D). – Mr President, I would like to congratulate the rapporteur on this excellent report. As has been said, volunteering and volunteers account for 100 million people, or five percent of voluntary activities throughout the EU.
Voluntary activities at present are very important to major events, such as the current Euro 2012 football championships, the International Eucharistic Congress and the Special Olympics, which was very much founded on the basis of volunteers. Communities also benefit very much from volunteering, which helps to promote a sense of community through the voluntary organisations that serve them.
This report deals specifically with cross-border voluntary activities and emphasises how cross-border activities can promote and enrich young people and volunteers who are involved in these activities through intercultural experience. I very much welcome the proposal for a humanitarian core and I would suggest that there are a lot of people – particularly in Ireland – who have taken early retirement and who have quite a lot of skills which they are able to give. I would encourage people, perhaps those who have taken early retirement, to use their skills and to get involved in this.
I also welcome the skills passport, the removal of a lot of red tape, and the acknowledgement of the importance of volunteering activities for the skills and development of people.
Marek Henryk Migalski (ECR). – (PL) Mr President, the importance of volunteering cannot be overestimated, both for the operation of modern states and for the function of civil society. The fact that the document we have before us stresses the importance of volunteering for the function of both societies and states is very important to me personally, as well as to my political group. While we appreciate the effort Mr Scurria has put into his work on this document, and while we appreciate the merits of volunteering, my political group will have to abstain from voting, mainly because some parts of the report threaten to increase the costs involved in running these programmes and promoting the idea we are talking about here. This was also mentioned by Ms Harkin in her speech. The report also contains several other things, and this is why – while we appreciate the merits of volunteering – we are going to abstain in this vote, although we do believe that the idea itself is very important.
Joanna Katarzyna Skrzydlewska (PPE). – (PL) Mr President, the Scurria report discusses the extremely important question of volunteering. The nature of this work means that it is often treated as work which is of less value, and questions related to establishing the rights of volunteers remain unresolved. I think that in view of the economic crisis, volunteering – which provides support for democracy and is an expression of solidarity – should be the subject of particular care and should also be encouraged in countries which are not part of the Union. I think we should begin by clarifying the legal framework, and that we should also eliminate unnecessary administrative barriers. Bureaucratic obstacles often mean that volunteers cannot do their work, and many of them end up feeling discouraged. I think the European football championship currently being held in Poland and Ukraine furnishes excellent evidence of how much we need volunteers and how very useful they are to us.
Marie-Christine Vergiat (GUE/NGL). – (FR) Mr President, excuse me. In principle, the tradition is to have one speaker per group before hearing more speeches from other groups.
I would like to make a small protest, a point of order, to ask both the interpreters and translators to stop their constant use of an Anglicism whereby they confuse the terms ‘bénévolat’ (voluntary work) and ‘volontariat’ (voluntary service). The French translation for the word ‘volunteer’ is ‘bénévole’.
I would like to thank Mr Scurria for the quality of his work and the way in which he has cooperated with all of the shadow rapporteurs. It has been a real pleasure working on this report and I would like to emphasise three points in particular.
It is not truly possible to have volunteers if there are no voluntary organisations. To that end, it is important, Commissioner, that the Commission moves towards the recognition of a European Statute for Associations. It has made some efforts for the other bodies of the social economy but we are met with silence concerning the European Statute for Associations; this cannot go on.
I also wanted to say that it is absolutely fundamental to recognise the concept of grants to associations, particularly during the present time of budgetary constraints, so that we may make advances and cease to confuse subsidies with State aid.
President. – Ms Vergiat, I feel I must inform you that, as chair today, I have to follow the rule that the strength of speakers’ groupings has to be taken into account when giving them the floor. These are the rules. I will, in any case, be giving many more speakers the floor. I am trying, however, to organise the speeches according to the strength of the groups, as prescribed for me in the Rules of Procedure.
Franz Obermayr (NI). – (DE) Mr President, 100 million European citizens volunteer and generate, after all, almost 5% of Europe’s GDP. However, many volunteers frequently face difficult physical and psychological burdens during their volunteering and appropriate social security must also be borne in mind.
Anyone looking to operate across borders, as most recently with the earthquake in Liguria, should not have to overcome unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles. Skills acquired must be recognised across the Union, and these also need to be documented. A European Skills Passport would be a sensible idea here. However, collaboration in this regard should be based, first and foremost, on the exchange of best practice. Austria and Germany, for instance, are exemplary when it comes to volunteer fire services. Such structures could also be exported to other parts of Europe and could play a central role in future disaster management.
Georgios Papanikolaou (PPE). – (EL) Mr President, I should like to congratulate our rapporteur, Mr Scurria, on an exceptional report and a job very well done during the European Year of Voluntary Activities and now in this report. Congratulations.
I should like to add to what has already been said, by saying that, despite the measures that we have proposed and despite the efforts made to date, there are still huge discrepancies between national levels of voluntary activities. In Austria and the Netherlands, we have approximately 30% voluntary participation, compared with the countries of southern Europe, where the rate is less than 15%. The same applies, of course, to the contribution of voluntary activities to each country’s GDP. In countries with high levels of voluntary activities, the contribution may be as high as 5%, compared with 0.3% in countries where there are low levels of voluntary activities. Thus, to those who say that, quite apart from the joy of participation and creativity offered by voluntary activities, we need to reduce voluntary activities because of the crisis, we say that, on the contrary, voluntary activities can also make an essential contribution to this sector too.
Zuzana Roithová (PPE). – (CS) Mr President, volunteering is at the heart of a functioning European society. For some areas, such as social and health services, fire-fighting activities, leisure activities for the young and so on, the network of volunteers forms an indispensable part of the system. One in five EU citizens gets involved in beneficial activities on a voluntary basis and our task is to facilitate the possibility of cross-border volunteering. This will help, among other things, to break down remaining historical barriers. I share the rapporteur’s view that we should create a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps and that we must find a way of facilitating the mobility of volunteers. The European Skills Passport is a good step in this direction. For selected sectors, there is also the solution of modifying administrative permits for third-country nationals in order to facilitate volunteering. The sharing of know-how will certainly help. Legal measures to prevent the misuse of this arrangement for illegal migration will also be of key importance. I therefore do not support lifting the visa requirement for such cases in the current phase.
Petru Constantin Luhan (PPE). – (RO) Mr President, I endorse this initiative as, at the moment, young people have limited opportunities for accessing the labour market. The new measures being proposed offer them, in fact, the chance to develop more easily the personal and professional skills they need to become integrated more quickly into an intercultural environment.
On the other hand, however, I regret that no definite, outright differentiation is made between volunteering and profit-making, paid activities, leaving it open to interpretation by those organisations which could abuse this aspect, especially as the proposal is also aimed at elderly people wishing to participate in community life, and who are already of an age and have extensive professional experience which could be used. I think that we should continue to focus our attention on introducing detailed procedures to make this distinction clear, thereby preventing any such risks of exploiting the work of those who would like to get involved in volunteering.
End of the catch-the-eye procedure
Karel De Gucht, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, I would like to thank Parliament and, in particular, the rapporteur, Mr Scurria.
The European Commission is very satisfied with the results of the European Year of Volunteering, which gave a lot of momentum to volunteering in Europe and showed that volunteering contributes to our democratic and pluralistic society and lends added value to EU policies. A large and varied number of activities took place during the European Year of Volunteering – many of which will continue beyond that European Year – and a significant number of structures put in place in 2011 have become permanent.
So far, six important policy documents have been adopted as a result of the European Year. Mr Scurria’s report on ‘Recognising and promoting cross-border voluntary activities in the EU’ will be the seventh significant policy document in this series in support of volunteering.
The report links in perfectly with the Commission communication on EU policies on volunteering. Our communication aimed to outline the ways in which the Commission already supports the voluntary sector and how it plans to further improve the recognition and promotion of volunteering in the future.
We agree on many points. Both Parliament and the European Commission recommend that Member States should assess the need for creating a clear legal framework for volunteering and develop appropriate national strategies to achieve that. Together, we are encouraging Member States to make volunteering accessible to all sectors of society and to support cooperation between providers of voluntary activities in the EU.
Another common recommendation to Member States is that they should adopt the volunteering measurement methods developed by Johns Hopkins University to get a clearer picture of the role of voluntary activities in our economy. The European Commission is committed to ensuring long-term follow-up of the European Year and has taken concrete steps in this direction.
Overall, the European Year of Volunteering 2011 influenced positively volunteering in Europe. This positive influence will continue, since it may take several more years for some of the benefits of the Year to bear fruit and become tangible. The European Year of Volunteering lies behind us, but we are now at a starting point for ensuring that the legacy of that European Year remains in place. The Commission communication of last September and your report today show us ways to follow up on that Year, including by developing synergies with the proposed European Year of Citizens in 2013.
The Commission looks forward to working with Parliament towards our common objective to further facilitate and promote volunteering in the European Union.
President. – The debate is closed.
The vote will take place on Tuesday, 12 June, at 12.00.
Written statements (Rule 149)
Luís Paulo Alves (S&D), in writing. – (PT) Volunteering contributes directly to the key objectives of EU policies, including social inclusion, employment, education, capacity building, citizenship, justice and social solidarity. For this to be recognised, it is necessary to encourage the Commission to continue to support volunteering through its programmes and cohesion programmes, as well as recognise that the informal learning achieved through volunteering should be valued at national and European level. As such, it is necessary to create national strategies and a clear legal framework at European Union level.
I recall that we celebrated the European Year of Volunteering in 2011, an initiative that gave us a deeper understanding of the added value from these activities. Volunteering has spread such that today, Europe counts on more than 100 million volunteers, who have a decisive impact on social cohesion and the economy. The body of actions of social and community interest carried out through volunteers’ own initiative or within projects or programmes must therefore be properly formulated and valued, inter alia, within the scope of the cross-border mobility encouraged by the EU.
Sergio Berlato (PPE), in writing. – (IT) The year 2011 was the European Year of Volunteering, full of initiatives that saw volunteers across Europe engage in promotion, information and awareness-raising activities on this issue. Recent figures show that there is a body of 100 million European citizens working in various voluntary activities, who are able to contribute 5% of European GDP. In my view, volunteering is an expression of active citizenship in all spheres of social life, while cross-border volunteering, in particular, is an opportunity for intercultural enrichment for young European citizens. Following the visibility acquired through the European Year of Volunteering, I feel it is appropriate to focus on various specific measures to promote these activities. To this end, I welcome the rapporteur’s proposals, including the idea of establishing a centralised EU portal on volunteering with a specific section dedicated to cross-border volunteering, and of creating a ‘European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps’. The latter, with the task of selecting, training and sending volunteers to provide support to local organisations in the event of natural disasters, has the invaluable advantage of developing synergies with existing organisations and structures in order to avoid duplication and funding diversion.
Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska (PPE), in writing. – (PL) Cross-border cooperation is extremely important in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Volunteering contributes to the implementation of the Europe 2020 growth strategy and, in particular, to the attainment of the EU’s 2020 employment rate target. Cross-border volunteering helps people acquire new skills and adapt to changes in the labour market. EU funds are often an important instrument here, as they can be used with programmes which promote new technologies and innovations or with programmes related to culture or education. I personally think we should also give attention to the countries of the Eastern Partnership when promoting voluntary activities – one way to popularise volunteering among young people is to open Erasmus to students from Eastern Europe. Every year, Erasmus enables around 200 000 students from 33 countries to make an exchange visit. Students from Eastern Partnership countries currently have limited opportunities to participate in student exchanges and, in fact, it is mainly students who are volunteers.
Tiziano Motti (PPE), in writing. – (IT) Volunteering makes it possible to carry out work useful to society and to acquire skills and knowledge which will help with job-seeking or with getting onto a particular training course. The creation of a ‘skills passport’ needs to be supported, in order to facilitate the formal recognition of professional experience across the EU, which must go hand in hand with an increase in funding for European volunteering work. Volunteering is, in fact, experienced and regulated in too many different ways in the Member States and recognition of the volunteering work performed, even where this is provided entirely free of charge, is not uniform among the countries. We therefore hope that a centralised European portal will be created to help voluntary organisations to disseminate information, improve cooperation and exchange best practices and experiences, recognising a voluntary worker’s ‘passport’, which can accredit any volunteering experiences even for university or professional use, keeping our young people active while they are seeking jobs, and disseminating best practices between voluntary organisations in Europe.
Csanád Szegedi (NI), in writing. – (HU) My party is of the opinion that it is extremely important to promote cross-border voluntary activities by all means possible. It is evident that there is a will in society to help our fellow human beings on a voluntary basis. An excellent example of this was the Hungarian Guard in Hungary, which participated in food distribution, blood donation and flood control on several occasions. As a Member of the Jobbik party, I motion, by reference to the Hungarian example, that the European Parliament assert the principle of volunteering in its resolution.