About 100 million Europeans take part in volunteering, contributing 5% to the European gross domestic product. It also offers a great opportunity for young Europeans to help abroad, but many of them still face problems such as red tape and language barriers, says Italian Christian-Democrat Marco Scurria. He calls for a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps and a European skills passport to make cross-border volunteering easier. MEPs adopted his resolution concerning volunteering on 12 June.
Mr Scurria proposes several measures to promote volunteering. This includes:
creating an EU portal on volunteering with a special section on cross-border volunteering
establishing a European skills passport, so that skills acquired through volunteering are officially recognised
supporting the creation of a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps, which would select, train and send volunteers to provide support to local organisations in the event of natural disasters
Check out our infographic for the main areas of voluntary work in Europe.