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In its opinion, the EESC welcomes the commitment to the renewed European Solidarity Corps (ESC) with an increased budget and target for participation. It also appreciates the merging with the EU Aid Volunteers. The Committee believes that in the future, the EU needs to develop two independent support programmes, one for youth and one for volunteering.
The EESC makes a series of concrete recommendations, such as: 1) the employment strand of the ECS needs to be subject to strict regulation and regular review; 2) there should be no age restriction on the ESC as it should be a support for volunteering; 3) the ESC should be restricted to the not for profit sector; 4)the main civil society platforms in the field (the European Youth Forum and the European Volunteering Centre) should be centrally involved in the regulation and oversight of the ESC.
Composition of the study Group
Administrator in charge: Katarina Albrechtova | Assistant: Judith Landesz
Background info
All recently negotiated and implemented EU "new generation" free trade agreements (either stand-alone free trade agreements or free trade chapters within association agreements) include among others, a Trade and sustainable Development (TSD) chapter. These chapters usually foresee civil society mechanisms, called Domestic Advisory Groups (DAGs), in the EU and in the partner country or countries. Currently functioning DAGs are already in place within agreements with Korea, Colombia/Peru/Ecuador, Central America, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, Canada.