Establishment of the European Voluntary Corpus - 02.12

Today was the day of the official establishment of the European Voluntary Corpus. We again got together with the representatives of all the school's participating in the project and we chose our projects. We made some team building and we talked about the problems of our city and how we can be useful in the mission of solving them. Maybe the main problem was that we were too naive and ambitious and we suggested solutions that were far too idealistic and impossible for our city, because the municipality cannot help us a lot. However, we managed to reach consensus for every topic we discussed and I can confidently say that I am proud of being part of such a wonderful group of young people that share my vision about the world! :)) 2011 it the year of the volunteer, wich was very interesting to me. Here are some facts for this:

Objectives of the Year:
(http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/focus/focus840_en.htm )

The EU will use the Year to work towards four main objectives:
 1. To create an enabling and facilitating environment for volunteering in the EU;
 2. To empower volunteer organisations and improve the quality of volunteering;
 3. To reward and recognise volunteering activities; and
 4. To raise awareness of the value and importance of volunteering.
 The Commission expects that the European Year of Volunteering will lead to an increase in volunteering
and to greater awareness of its added value, and that it will highlight the link between voluntary engagement at local level and its significance in the wider European context.
 The aim is to involve all levels – European, national, regional and local, but the emphasis is very much on a bottom-up approach. In this way the ownership of the European Year shall remain as much as possible with the volunteers and the volunteer organisations.

Activities:
 There are many interested parties who are getting involved in the Year. The European Commission is also planning a range of activities. These include communication and awareness-raising measures (EYV Tour, EYV Relay, EYV Website, Thematic conferences).
Target groups:
 - Volunteers (current and potential)
- Policy makers
- Civil society

Budget:

The budgetary authority (European Parliament and Council of the EU) granted a dedicated budget for the European Year of Volunteering, as follows:
European Year of Volunteering 2011: EUR 8 million.
Preparatory actions 2010: EUR 3 million 


 The meeting went really great because all the people were so enthusiastic! We all had great ideas and it was very fun =] I loved it and I can’t wait to the next meeting.