The European Commission has launched the European Solidarity Corps.
With the new European Solidarity Corps, participants will have the opportunity to be placed with a project either for volunteering or for a traineeship, an apprenticeship or a job for a period between 2 and 12 months.

Participants will be able to engage in a broad range of activities such as education, health, social integration, assistance in the provision of food, shelter construction, reception, support and integration of migrants and refugees, environmental protection or prevention of natural disasters.

The European Solidarity Corps has been officially launched on December 7th and young people can already register (http://europa.eu/solidarity-corps), but we see that a number of issues still need to be clarified. It is not clear why this was done so quickly and there is a risk to raise expectations that cannot be adequately fulfilled.

EUNET contributed to a position paper of Civil Society Europe where we believe that the initiative needs to fulfil a number of conditions to be successful:

• A participatory setup and implementation of the programme
• Integration in a broader strategy and adequately resourced
• Subscription to a Quality Charter
• A clear distinction between volunteering and employment
• Quality training, mentoring and support
• A clear role for civil society organisation
• Clarifying financial and logistical aspects