26 Amendments of Dominique BILDE related to 2017/0102(COD)
Amendment 134 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 2
Recital 2
(2) The State of the Union address of 14 September 201617 emphasized the need to invest in young people and announced the establishment of a European Solidarity Corps with a view to creating opportunities for young people across the Union to make a meaningful contribution to society, show solidarity and develop their skills, thus getting not only workan activity but also invaluable human experience. __________________ 17 The State of the Union 2016: Towards a Better Europe – A Europe that Protects, Empowers and Defends, IP/16/3042 (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16- 3042_en.htm).
Amendment 147 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 4
Recital 4
(4) Young people should be provided with easily accessible opportunities to engage in solidarity activities, which could enable them to express their commitment to the benefit of communities while acquiring useful experience, skills and competences for their personal, educational, social, civic and professional development, thereby improving their employability. Those activities would also support the mobility ofany travel necessary for young volunteers, trainees and workers.
Amendment 157 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) The solidarity activities offered to young people should be of high quality, in the sense that they should respond to unmet societal needs, contribute to strengthening communitiesthe resilience of communities and links within and between them, offer young people the opportunity to acquire valuable knowledge and competences, be financially accessible to young people, and be implemented in safe and healthy conditions.
Amendment 170 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 7
Recital 7
Amendment 178 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) Voluntary activities constitute a rich experience in a non-formal and informal learning context which enhances young people's personal, socio-educational and professional development, active citizenship and employability. Voluntary activities should not have an adverse effect on potential or existing paid employment, nor should they be seen as a substitute for it. In order to ensure continuity with respect to the volunteering activities that are supported at Union level, the volunteering activities under the European Voluntary Service that fall within the geographical scope of the European Solidarity Corps should be supported by the latter in the form of cross-border volunteering placements. The other volunteering activities under the European Voluntary Service that do not fall under the geographical scope of the European Solidarity Corps should continue to be supported under the Programme established by Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing 'Erasmus+': the Union programme for education, training, youth and sport20gradually be abandoned. With respect to the interpretation of related legislation at Union level, both the cross- border volunteering placements under the European Solidarity Corps and the volunteering activities that continue to be supported until they have been completed under Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 should be considered equivalent to those carried out under the European Voluntary Service. __________________ 20 Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing 'Erasmus+': the Union programme for education, training, youth and sport and repealing Decisions No 1719/2006/EC, No 1720/2006/EC and No 1298/2008/EC, OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 50.
Amendment 188 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) Young people’s spirit of initiative is an important asset for society and for the labour market. The European Solidarity Corps should contribute to fostering this aspect by offering young people the opportunity to devise and implement their own projects aimed at addressing specific challenges to the benefit of their local communities. Those projects should be an opportunity to try out ideas and support young people to be themselves drivers of solidarity actions within their communities. They could also serve as a springboard for further engagement in solidarity activities and could be a first step towards encouraging European Solidarity Corps participants to engage in self- employment or setting up associations, NGOs or other bodies active in the solidarity, non-profit and youth sectors.
Amendment 200 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 12
Recital 12
(12) Young people and organisations participating in the European Solidarity Corps should feel that they belong to a community of individuals and entities committed to enhancing solidarity across Europebetween citizens of European nations. At the same time, participating organisations need support to strengthen their capacities to offer good quality placements to an increasing number of participants. The European Solidarity Corps should support networking activities aimed at strengthening young people and participating organisations’ engagement in this community, at fostering a European Solidarity Corps spirit, as well as at encouraging the exchange of useful practices and experience. Those activities should also contribute to raising awareness about the European Solidarity Corps among public and private actors as well as to collect feedback from participants and participating organisations on the implementation of the European Solidarity Corps.
Amendment 250 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 22
Recital 22
Amendment 261 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 24
Recital 24
(24) Special attention should be paid to ensuring that the activities supported by the European Solidarity Corps are accessible to all young people, notably the most disadvantaged ones. Special measures should therefore be put in place to promote social inclusion, the participation of disadvantaged young people, as well as to take into account the constraints imposed by the remoteness of certain localities from metropolises, and of the outermost regions of the Union and the Overseas Countries and Territories24. Similarly, the participating countries should endeavour to adopt all appropriate measures to remove legal and administrative obstacles to the proper functioning of the European Solidarity Corps. This includes resolving, where possible, and without prejudice to the Schengen acquis and Union law on the entry and residence of third-country nationals, administrative issues that create difficulties in obtaining visas and residence permits. __________________ 24 Individuals from an overseas country or territory (OCT) and competent public and /or private bodies and institutions from an OCT may participate in the programmes in accordance with Council Decision 2001/822/EC of 27 November 2001 on the association of the overseas countries and territories with the European Community, OJ L314, 30.11.2001, p.1.
Amendment 282 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) In order to ensure greater efficiency in communication to the public at large and stronger synergies between the communication activities undertaken at the initiative of the Commission, the resources allocated to communication under this Regulation should also contribute to covering the corporate communication of the political priorities of the Union, provided that these are related to the general objective of this Regulation and that they represent a marginal cost in relation to the financing of the projects.
Amendment 286 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 31
Recital 31
(31) In order to ensure financially sound implementation and close monitoring of the European Solidarity Corps at national level, it is importanterative to use the existing National Authorities designated for the management of the actions referred to in Chapter III of Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013.
Amendment 292 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 36
Recital 36
Amendment 302 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 40
Recital 40
Amendment 317 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
(1) “solidarity activity” means an activity aimed at addressing unmet societal needs to the benefit of a community while also fostering the individual’s personal, educational, social, civic and professional and civic development, which may take the form of placements, projects or networking activities, developed in relation to different areas, such as education and training, employment, gender equality, entrepreneurship, in particular social entrepreneurship, citizenship and democratic participation, environment and nature protection, climate action, disaster prevention, preparedness and recovery, agriculture and rural development, provision of food and non-food items, health and wellbeing, creativity and culture, physical education and sport, social assistance and welfare, reception and integration of third-country nationalassistance to people with disabilities, combating isolation, particularly of older persons, territorial cooperation and cohesion;
Amendment 346 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5
(5) “solidarity placement” means a volunteering activity, traineeship or job in a solidarity-related area, which is organised by a participating organisation and which contributes to addressing key societal challenges while enhancing the personal, educational, social, civic and professional development and the employability of the European Solidarity Corps participant who undertakes it, either in a country other than the country of residence (cross- border) or in the of the participant (in-country) of residence of the participant (in-country)r in another Member State;
Amendment 360 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6
(6) “volunteering” means a full-time32 unpaid voluntary service for a period of up to twelve months, which provides young people with the opportunity to contribute to the daily work of organisations active in solidarity-related fields, to the ultimate benefit of the communities within which the activities are carried out, including a solid learning and training dimension in order to enable the young volunteer(s) to gain skills and competences, which will be useful for their personal, educational, social and professional development, and which will also contribute to improving their employability and social development; __________________ 32 As a general principle, an activity carried out continuously, 5 days a week for 7 hours a day.
Amendment 386 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 12
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 12
(12) “European Solidarity Corps Charter” means the document that sets out the respective rights and responsibilities that all the entities willing to join the European Solidarity Corps must agree to adhere to and comply with;
Amendment 408 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 1
Article 3 – paragraph 1
The objective of the European Solidarity Corps is to enhance the engagement of young people and organisations in accessible and high quality solidarity activities as a means to contribute to strengthening cohesion and solidarity in the European Union, supporting communities and responding to societal challenges.
Amendment 411 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) to provide young people, with the support of participating organisations, with easily accessible opportunities for engagement in solidarity activities while improving their skills and competences for personal, educational, social, civic and professional development, as well as their employability and facilitating transition into the labour market, including by supporting the mobility of young volunteers, trainees and workers and civic development;
Amendment 423 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) to ensure that the solidarity activities that are offered to the European Solidarity Corps participants contribute to addressing the concrete, unmet societal needs andclosest to them and to strengthening communities, are of high quality and properly validated.
Amendment 433 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 3
Article 5 – paragraph 3
Amendment 440 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 a (new)
Article 5 a (new)
Article 5a Once this Regulation has entered into force, the European Voluntary Service must not take on new projects, ongoing projects shall be brought to a conclusion and if there is scope to renew them, they must be renewed within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps; ongoing European Voluntary Service projects which took place outside the European Union shall be brought to a conclusion but may not be renewed.
Amendment 458 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) solidarity placements in the form of volunteering, traineeships or jobs, including individual cross-border and in- countryin-country and cross- border placements as well as volunteering teams’ placements;
Amendment 529 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 11 – paragraph 2
Article 11 – paragraph 2
Amendment 639 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 16 – paragraph 3
Article 16 – paragraph 3
Amendment 650 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 19 – paragraph 3
Article 19 – paragraph 3
3. The independent audit body shall give the Commission and its representatives, as well as the Court of Auditors,national agency full access to all documents and reports in support of the audit opinion that it issues on the national agency's yearly management declaration.