European Solidarity Corps - Performance

Programme in a nutshell

Concrete examples of achievements (*)

^{(*) Key achievements in the table state which period they relate to. Many come from the implementation of the predecessor programmes under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. This is expected and is due to the multiannual life cycle of EU programmes and the projects they finance, where results often follow only after completion of the programmes.}

Budget for 2021-2027

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Rationale and design of the programme

The programme finances projects to give young people a chance to take part in solidary activities addressing societal challenges through volunteering or to set up their own solidary projects. It provides supports to young people wishing to engage in solidary activities in a variety of areas, from helping the disadvantaged and delivering humanitarian aid to contributing to health and environmental action across the EU and beyond.

Budget

Budget programming (million EUR):

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  Financial programming:
   + EUR 6 million (+ 1%)
  compared to the legal basis*

^{* Top-ups pursuant to Art. 5 of the multiannual financial framework regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.}

• The 2021-2027 financial programming has a rather linear and flat profile with a moderate increase of the programme over the programming period (initially about 2% by year). In 2022 and 2023, the programme received additional budget as a result of the final EU voted budget (EUR 3 million each year). Moreover, and not included in the figures above, in 2023 and 2024, the programme is benefitting from co-delegated funds from Horizon Europe missions, which are topping up the volunteering budget.

Budget performance – implementation

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2023 (million EUR):

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Voted budget implementation (million EUR)^(*):

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Contribution to horizontal priorities

Green budgeting

Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):

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• The programme contributes to the mainstreaming of climate action by targeting organisations and young people wishing to tackle current societal challenges, including climate action, through projects that benefit people and communities across Europe and beyond. A coefficient of 40% is applied to the relevant projects’ budget, in accordance with the EU climate coefficients methodology. Young people between the ages of 18 and 30 can take part in a wide range of solidarity activities, such as tackling societal challenges and supporting vulnerable people, and can contribute to positive change in communities across Europe and beyond, all while gaining valuable skills. Climate action, the environment and nature protection are increasingly popular areas within the programme. A strategic approach towards carbon-neutral and more environmentally friendly post-2020 EU programmes for education, training, youth, sport and solidarity is under preparation. Meanwhile, the programme already supports sustainability and climate action in the following ways:
  • supporting projects with the themes of climate action and sustainability;
  • assigning a dedicated priority in its specific calls for ‘volunteering teams in high-priority areas’ to climate change and sustainability;
  • promoting sustainable awareness among programme participants.
• Since 2021, the programme has supported projects and activities aiming to protect, conserve and enhance natural capital, to raise awareness about environmental sustainability and to enable behavioural changes linked to individual preferences, consumption habits and lifestyles. The programme supports initiatives aimed at preventing and mitigating or repairing the adverse effects of extreme weather events and natural disasters, along with activities that provide support to affected communities in the aftermath of such events or disasters.
• In general, the programme promotes the incorporation of green practices in all projects, regardless of the main focus of their activities. Organisations and participants involved with the programme should have an environmentally friendly approach when designing their activities. Activities contributing to other existing EU initiatives in the area of environmental sustainability (e.g. the New European Bauhaus) are highly encouraged.
• Funding rules have been revised so that from 2024, sustainable travel will become the default option, and the programme will offer stronger incentives for those who travel in a sustainable way. Participants will be encouraged to prioritise green travel as their first choice when planning their trip.
• Combining funding from the programme and Horizon Europe EU missions in 2023 and 2024 will further mobilise young citizens to give their time to climate and environmental projects, along with health projects, linked to the goals of the missions. Creating a connection between the missions and the programme will help to deliver systemic change. The extra budget allocated from Horizon Europe EU missions to the programme addresses the following priorities: green, health, digital, culture, civil security and food bioeconomy.
• The yearly contribution to climate objectives is based on beneficiary organisations’ applications to receive funding for projects with climate-related topics.

Gender

Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):

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• The programme aims to promote social inclusion by facilitating access by young people with fewer opportunities. In some cases, young people need additional support to face various obstacles such as gender-based discrimination, harassment and gender-based violence. A number of solidarity and volunteering projects address issues such as the promotion of gender equality, the fight against sexual violence, the promotion of LGBTQ+ equality, etc.
• Regarding interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality (score 2), the total yearly contribution to gender is based on beneficiary organisations’ applications for receiving funding for projects with gender-related topics (e.g. the promotion of equality between women and men in the fields of arts and sports, fighting violence and discrimination against women and girls).
• Since the beginning of the programming period, 8 321 of the participants with fewer opportunities have been women, representing 62% of this category.
• Regarding interventions with a likely but not yet clear impact on gender equality (score 0*), the total yearly contribution to gender is the difference between the programme budget as indicated in the relevant annual work programme and the yearly contribution to gender, based on beneficiary organisations’ applications for receiving funding for projects with gender-related topics.
• Data are provisional, as the final results will only be available upon completion of the projects.
• Due to the specificities of the European Solidarity Corps programme, it is not possible to fully discern the gender contribution from voted budget implementation commitments only. The split presented in the table above represents a pro rata division based on the scores’ proportions of the total implementation included in the relevant annual work programmes. This total of EUR 431 million includes administrative credits on top of the voted budget implementation.
• Examples of gender-related projects addressing gender equality can be found on the European Solidarity Corps Platform.

Digital

Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):

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• The programme aims to help Europeans, regardless of their gender, age and background, to live and thrive in the digital age through projects and activities that help to improve digital skills in general and/or foster digital literacy, and to develop an understanding of the risks and opportunities of digital technology.
• In general, the programme promotes the use of appropriate information, communication and technology tools in all projects, regardless of the main focus of their activities.
• The yearly contribution to digital objectives is based on beneficiary organisations’ applications for receiving funding for projects with digital-related topics. Data are provisional, as the final results will only be available upon completion of the projects (normally 2-3 years after they start).
• 2022 saw the launch of the Digital SALTO (support, advanced learning and training opportunities) with the aim of supporting the qualitative implementation of the digital priority in the programme and of bringing the programme and policy closer towards the digital objectives.
• The European Solidarity Corps also supports virtual cooperation and digital education through the European Solidarity Corps portal embedded in the European Youth Portal, which manages the registration and implementation of volunteering and solidarity activities. By the end of 2023, 246 620 new users had registered on the portal and the European Solidarity Corps app had been downloaded more than 21 000 times.

Budget performance – outcomes

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• The late adoption of the programme’s legal basis delayed the publication of the 2021 call and consequently the selection of proposals for funding. As a result, projects were chosen and contracted later than usual. In addition, many organisations postponed their project activities from 2019 and 2020 until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, some of them did not have the operational capacity to initiate new projects under the new multiannual financial framework (i.e. in response to the 2021 call). In 2021, these factors further exacerbated the lower budget take-up that is typical for the first year of each programming period, i.e. the time needed by potential applicants to adjust to new rules and procedures.
• After 3 years of implementation, we see that the programme’s volunteering projects have absorbed the allocated budget to a very large extent, due to the high level of demand by young people for volunteering opportunities. However, we also observe that the number of young people who can be supported with the available budget is lower than initially expected. This is due to a lower-than-estimated take-up of short-term activities, which are less costly, and higher-than-estimated take-up of long-term volunteering activities.
• Short-term activities, which typically last from 2 weeks to 2 months, cost on average about 8 to 10 times less than longer-term activities, which last between several months and 1 year. These activities are designed mainly for young people with fewer opportunities. The original estimations of the budget split between short- and long-term activities was 35% short-term versus 65% long-term, whereas we now observe a split closer to 15% for short-term and 85% for long-term activities. This goes a long way towards explaining the implementation figures (in terms of the number of volunteers). Additional factors influencing these figures are inflation and a more significant uptake of the programme by young people with fewer opportunities, which has exceeded the programme’s original ambitions. At the time of the publication of this document, it is too early to report on the performance of the 2021-2027 programme. The ongoing midterm evaluation of the programme is due to be finalised by the end of 2024, and will provide factual input on the programme’s performance.
• Rising inflation and overall hosting costs have put increasing pressure on the costs of corps participants. Therefore, the Commission has adjusted the rates of individual support for the 2023 European Solidarity Corps call for proposals, with a focus on supporting individual participants, who are most affected by the increase in the cost of living.
• Under the 2024 call, the Commission has even more thoroughly revised the funding rules in order to improve the programme’s inclusiveness and to ensure that volunteers will have full support through their hosting organisations by adjusting the rates to compensate for the impact of inflation.
• This may result in a decreased number of participants in volunteering and solidarity activities, assuming no substantial changes in the budget until 2027. However, such a reduction will partly be mitigated by the co-delegation of Horizon Europe missions funds to European Solidarity Corps, which was implemented in 2023 and 2024. This is a very concrete example of a fruitful synergy between two Commission programmes, and will be further explored in the coming years until the end of the multiannual financial framework.
• Building on past experience, the programme implementation scheme is evolving to become more efficient and to address issues that came up in the previous multiannual financial framework. In 2021, a specific priority, prevention, promotion and support in the field of health, was added to mobilise volunteers in addressing the impact of the pandemic and the recovery. In 2022, two priorities were added: promoting healthy lifestyles and preservation of cultural heritage. In 2023, inclusion and diversity, environmental sustainability and climate goals, digital transformation and participation in democratic life were added, along with relief for people fleeing armed conflicts and other victims of natural or human-made disasters. The latter will be maintained in 2024, and seconded by fostering positive learning experiences and outcomes for young people with fewer opportunities.
• The programme and its entire community once again showed extreme resilience and adaptability by quickly mobilising to provide relief to Ukrainian residents fleeing the war, along with communities across the EU that offered them a safe haven. With the conflict still ongoing, the programme will continue to contribute to the provision of relief for people fleeing armed conflicts and other victims of disasters such as floods, fires and earthquakes in the coming years.
• Launched in 2022, the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps is a new centralised action that allows the deployment of young volunteers in non-EU countries. The first call for proposals was published in the 2022 programme guide, enabling organisations that had been awarded the specific quality label to request funding for volunteering opportunities in support of humanitarian aid projects. As 2023 was the first year of implementation, and based on the results of the first two calls, we can make more accurate estimates for the coming years, notably regarding deployment in teams, which is at a much lower level than had initially been expected. In practice, the number of volunteers is now expected to be much lower than the initial estimate, but their deployments are expected to last longer.
• During the active programme, the European Voluntary Service and the European Solidarity Corps were merged to provide better coherence and to address the deficiencies of the previous programmes. Corrective measures were put in place for the new humanitarian aid strand to prevent the low take-up experienced by the corresponding action in the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework: the EU aid volunteers initiative. Concerning training in particular, a new and much more effective training cycle was devised. Deeper integration with the features of other programme strands was ensured. The deadline for humanitarian aid applications for the 2024 call is in April.
• In 2023, the programme also continued to focus on its four main cross-cutting priorities:
  • inclusion and diversity,
  • digital transformation,
  • environmental protection, sustainable development and climate action,
  • participation in democratic life.
• For example, projects address the social and digital inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and young people’s civic engagement in the local decision-making process. In 2023, 43% of the projects addressed climate objectives.
• Besides the dedicated existing support, advanced learning and training opportunities (SALTO) resource centres on inclusion and on democratic participation, other centres were set up in 2022 to support the qualitative implementation of the digital and green horizontal priorities in the programme. The aim of the centres is to improve the quality and impact of the European Solidarity Corps at a systemic level by providing expertise, resources, analysis, information and training activities in specific areas for Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps national agencies and other relevant actors.

MFF 2014-2020 – European Solidarity Corps

The former programme (2018-2020) was aimed at giving young people the chance to take part in a range of solidarity activities that address challenging situations across the EU, such as rebuilding communities following natural disasters and addressing social issues such as social exclusion, poverty and health, and demographic challenges. The programme supported volunteering, traineeships and job placements in a wide range of sectors engaged in solidarity and provided young people with opportunities to set up their own solidarity projects or volunteer as a group.

Budget implementation

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2023 (million EUR):

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Performance assessment

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• The programme builds on the achievements of the European Voluntary Service and on the first phase of the programme, launched in December 2016, whereby different EU programmes were mobilised to offer volunteering, traineeships or job activities to young people across the EU. In 2018, the first programme regulation created a new, coherent framework for solidarity-related activities.
• The programme proved successful in providing opportunities to address horizontal priorities such as inclusion (with more than 30% of participants being people with fewer opportunities) or climate change (13% of projects supported under the programme address climate action, the environment and nature protection). It offered support for projects revolving around a range of solidarity (in the form of individual or team volunteering, traineeships, jobs and solidarity projects) involving young people between 18 and 30 years of age.
• The programme performed well in terms of budget absorption. However, it is now clear that the initial assumptions on targets were inaccurate. The combination of full budget absorption and low participant numbers (44%-46% of relevant target) shows that the cost of supporting individual solidarity opportunities was severely underestimated. The overestimated overall number of participants may be the consequence of an inaccurate estimation of the budget split between short- and long-term activities. The applicants’ strong preference for (more costly) long-term activities only became apparent during the implementation of the programme and explains to a great extent the implementation figures (in terms of the number of volunteers).
• The ‘Traineeships and jobs’ strand, which represented the biggest novelty under the programme, faced additional challenges. The performance targets had been designed with the expectation of a full 3 years of implementation over the 2018-2020 period. The short programme period (end of 2018-2020) had an impact on the possibilities for successful outreach to an entirely new category of stakeholders (potential participating organisations), and the ‘Traineeships and jobs’ strand did not manage to carve out a niche in the relatively vast range of national and EU tools aimed at improving the employment prospects of young people.
• In terms of participation rates, the number of young people in volunteering and solidarity projects continued to rise. In 2021, the total number of participants from the 2018–2020 calls exceeded 12 000. In 2021 alone, over 3 000 volunteering participants took part in programme activities despite the COVID-19 restrictions. The programme continued to provide relief where possible, for example by providing assistance to elderly people during the pandemic.
• Nearly 280 000 young people from across the EU registered with the programme by the end of 2020.
• The combination of the high number of young people who expressed their wish to engage in the programme (through registration) and 100% budget absorption showed that the programme is relevant for the target groups and – together with positive feedback from stakeholders in the youth and solidarity sectors – led the Commission to propose that the programme should be renewed for the 2021-2027 period.

MFF 2014-2020 – EU aid volunteers

The EU Aid Volunteers initiative brought together volunteers and organisations from different countries, providing practical support to humanitarian aid projects in non-programme countries and contributing to strengthening the local capacity and resilience of disaster-affected communities. The programme incentivised and fostered collaboration and the exchange of knowledge and good practices by building partnerships between organisations in the field of humanitarian aid.

Budget implementation

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2023 (million EUR):

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Performance assessment

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• After the launch of the initiative, the uptake of this new programme was below expectations. For the 2014-2020 period, the EU Aid Volunteers initiative aimed to finance the training of an initial target of 4 400 volunteers and the deployment of 4 000 volunteers, the provision of technical assistance and capacity-building to participating organisations, and the implementation of communication and other support activities. By the end of 2022, 1 192 deployments were financed, amounting to 29% of the initial target, and 788 deployments had taken place.
• The EU Aid Volunteers initiative introduced a thorough certification mechanism that required the sending and hosting organisations to prove that they had procedures and policies in place to achieve the high volunteering standards of the programme. This mechanism did not exist during the pilot phase. Consequently, challenging targets were set in terms of certified organisations and volunteers trained and deployed, which did not produce satisfactory results.
• In light of these issues, the aim to achieve better coherence and synergies with the European Voluntary Service and the programme gave rise to the creation of a new humanitarian aid strand in the European Solidarity Corps (2021-2027 multiannual financial framework), which followed the EU Aid Volunteers initiative. The expansion of the European Solidarity Corps’ scope to humanitarian aid in non-EU countries as of 2021 (i.e. taking over the legacy of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative) further confirms the programme’s role as a unique gateway for volunteering and other solidarity activities of young people in Europe, improving its visibility and impact across the EU and beyond.
• At the implementation level, the lessons learned from the previous programme have led to significantly simplified access for interested young people and organisations, including better provisions for involving young people with fewer opportunities in the programme. The programme’s quality and support mechanisms have also been enhanced, for example with more training and support options available to the young participants before, during and after their engagement in the programme.
• In order to ensure efficient and effective implementation, the 2021-2027 European Solidarity Corps programme makes maximum use of existing management arrangements already in place in the youth field. This allows a better focus on maximising delivery and performance of the programme’s actions while minimising administrative burden.

Contribution to the sustainable development goals