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Securing a better future for Europe's youth: Cities and regions contribute to the success of the European Solidarity Corps  
The European Commission is aiming to improve opportunities for young people and step up the fight against youth unemployment with a set of measures , which include the establishment of European Solidarity Corps. In an opinion prepared by Pawel Grzybowski (PL/ECR), the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) highlights that ensuring equal opportunities, promoting social integration and improving the competitiveness of young people on the labour market should remain the key objectives of the EU's youth policy.

Mr Grzybowski's opinion, which was adopted during the Thursday 11 May plenary session, calls for more cooperation with the public and private sector to help better match employee skills with labour market needs. It underlines that the implementation of various initiatives requires stronger local and regional government involvement as they have the knowledge and expertise about the specific, local or regional characteristics of an area.

The European Solidarity Corps is a new EU initiative for young people aged 18-30, which creates opportunities to volunteer or work in projects that benefit communities and people around Europe for a period of two to twelve months. After completing a registration process online, participants could be invited to join a wide range of projects, such as helping to prevent natural disasters or rebuild afterwards, assisting in centres for asylum seekers, or addressing different social issues in communities. More than 27,000 young people have signed up to date.

"I would like to call for the Commission to attribute appropriate funding to the European Solidarity Corps, without endangering in any way the implementation of successful programmes as the Erasmus+. Enabling young people to acquire additional skills by means of work and volunteering benefits both public and private sectors. Therefore, I would like to underline the importance of working with the private sector to couple public and private funds available to support the ESC's initiatives", Mr Grzybowski, Mayor of Rypin, said.

The opinion stresses the need to establish tools to monitor and support the young people participating in order to ensure the quality of the activities offered by the European Solidarity Corps, and also to ensure the young people are properly trained and prepared for the various activities. Furthermore, hosting organisations should follow the principles and standards such as those outlined in the European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships in order to guarantee quality jobs placements.

Contact:
Lauri Ouvinen
Tel. +32 22822063
lauri.ouvinen@cor.europa.eu grz

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