Brussels, 07/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 7 September, the vice president of the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, opened the Youth Convention on Volunteering, which takes place in Brussels on 7-11 September (EUROPE 10445). The Parliament will be welcoming 1,500 voluntary workers from the whole of Europe but is not satisfied with providing a purely formal work plan. It also wants to show a real commitment, explained Pittella. The Parliament will show this commitment in five different areas: (1) a European voluntary work charter; (2) a European observatory on voluntary work; (3) support for good practices for voluntary workers; (4) support for training voluntary workers; (5) tax deductions for financial donations made to voluntary activities. Katarina Nevedalova (S&D, Slovakia) and Marian Harkin (ALDE, Ireland) underlined the economic value of voluntary work and called for it to be given greater recognition. The president of the Economic and Social Committee, Staffan Nilsson, pointed out, however, that activities should not replace state commitments to society. The secretary-general of the European Youth Forum, Giuseppe Porcaro, concluded that they had come to shake up the European institutions and that they needed a legal framework for voluntary workers' rights and responsibilities because there were still a lot of obstacles. (I.L./transl.fl)