Make 2011 the European Year of the Volunteer - Attwooll MEP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd Apr 2008

Elspeth Attwooll MEP is backing calls for 2011 to be officially declared the 'European Year of Volunteering' in recognition of Europe's "shared spirit of volunteering".

The campaign is one of the recommendations of a new Report on "The Role of Volunteering in Contributing to Economic and Social Cohesion", adopted today by the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The Report received overwhelming backing with 639 for, 23 against and 21 abstentions.

The Liberal Democrat Member for Scotland said:

"Scottish research has estimated that a total of 1.3 million adults formally volunteered in 2006. This is quite amazing considering that EU figures had the total for all Member States at around 100 million in the same year.

It's vital that EU-level policy-making recognises the importance of volunteering to the economic and social well-being of our communities, with proper funds made available to support it.

Making 2011 the European Year of Volunteering would be an excellent way to celebrate the shared spirit of volunteering that exists all across Europe and promote the campaign".

-ENDS-

Notes:

1. The initiative to make 2011 the 'European Year of Volunteering' was recently launched by Independent Irish MEP and Elspeth's fellow member of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, Marian Harkin;

2. A 2006 Eurobarometer survey revealed that 3 out of 10 Europeans claim to be engaged in voluntary activity of some kind - which is over 100 million people;

3. The same survey showed that 80% of EU citizens consider volunteering as crucial to everyday life;

4. The study estimating that 1.3 million adults in Scotland volunteered was conducted by Volunteer Development Scotland (VDS);

5. In the same year volunteering contributed the equivalent of £1.8 billion to the Scottish economy.

6. The Harkin Report on the importance of 'The Role of Volunteering..." can be read at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A6-2008-0070&language=EN&mode=XML

7. More on volunteering in Scotland is available at the VDS website: www.vds.org.uk