Interinstitutional talks on the European Solidarity Corps are expected to begin on 12 April, as long as the European Parliament does not decide to question the mandate granted within the parliamentary committee, as permitted by the new rules.
The European Solidarity Corps was launched by the European Commission in December 2016 (see EUROPE 11684) to allow young people aged 18-30 to take part in a range of solidarity activities as volunteers, and the fulfilment of professional projects within the framework of a work contract. Last May, on the strength of that experience, the Commission suggested that the Corps should have a legal base and a specific budget until 2020 (see EUROPE 11798). The Council of the EU took a stance on 20 November 2017 (see EUROPE 11908) while the culture and education committee at the European Parliament voted on 21 February.
During a press breakfast, on Wednesday 7 March, the rapporteur, Helga Truepel (Greens/EFA, Germany), defended amendments put forward by MEPs. In practical terms, the parliamentary committee renamed the Corps the “European service for solidarity and volunteering” in order to sound less military, the rapporteur explains. MEPs were adamant that disadvantaged persons such as persons with disabilities, those coming for isolated or marginalised communities, LBGT persons or young people with learning or health problems should have easy access to the programme.
The main difficulty concerned the breakdown of the €341.5 million (mainly from Erasmus + and non-allocated margins) available for funding the new service. While the associated employment and social affairs committee wanted an 80-20% breakdown, the culture committee opted for 95% of the funding to be reserved for volunteering and 5% for trainee courses and professional secondment by non-commercial sector bodies. Such a decision might give rise to some frustration during the Parliament’s plenary session on 12 March. We would point out that Article 69c of the European Parliament regulation allows one tenth of the Parliament members to demand that a negotiating mandate already granted in parliamentary committee be put to a vote.
According to Helga Truepel, the funding method could also be the main stumbling block during interstitutional negotiations.
At this stage, 48,000 young people have already signed up to the Solidarity Corps. The European Commission aims to reach 100,000 young people by 2020. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)