The origins of the European Year of Volunteering date back to December 2006, when the European Economic and Social Committee asked the European Commission to announce a Year of Volunteers, and published as soon as possible, a White Paper on volunteering and active citizenship in Europe. "

Later, in March 2008, Parliament adopted a report on the 'role of volunteering in contributing to economic and social cohesion ", which encouraged Member States and regional and local authorities to recognize the value of volunteering in promoting social and economic cohesion.

In July of that year, Parliament adopted a Written Declaration calling for a European Year of Volunteers 2011.

Finally, on November 27, 2009 adopting the Council Decision 2010/37/CE of the European Year of Volunteering to promote active citizenship.

2011 will also be the year that marks the tenth anniversary of International Year of Volunteers, United Nations, in 2001.

The specific objectives for the European Year are:

    * Work towards an enabling environment for volunteering: volunteering to devote part of the promotion of citizen participation and address the bottlenecks in the development of voluntary activities.
    * Provide means of action to volunteer organizations and improve the quality of volunteering to help their organizations to implement new types of voluntary actions and to foster networking and cooperation among civil society.
    * Recognise voluntary activities: promote initiatives to individuals, companies and organizations involved in volunteer development and achieve a greater recognition of the policy makers, civil society organizations and employers to the skills and competencies developed through volunteering.
    * Raise awareness of the value and importance of volunteering to raise awareness about the importance of volunteering as an expression of citizen participation that makes its contribution to matters of common interest to all Member States, as a harmonious social development and social cohesion .

During the year will take place across Europe many events, exhibitions and activities of all kinds. The European campaign for the AEV2011 comprise:

AEV2011 TOUR - Approaching volunteers

A Tour will travel to the EU countries for a year. Each stage of the Tour will last about a week and give volunteers the opportunity to showcase their work, meet, engage with policy makers and the general public to get their energy and enthusiasm and discuss the main issues for the future of work .

The Tour AEV2011 Europe closer to the volunteers and at the same time, volunteers will bring to society as a whole.

The AEV2011 RELAY - A mission to reporters!

27 journalists will highlight the diversity of volunteering in Europe through audio documents, video and written reports on 54 organizations working with volunteers in 27 Member States, and transmitted and published in the media and the Web.
The Relay will follow the route of the Tour in Europe, creating synergies among local actors and European volunteer.

CONFERENCE - Building the foundation for a lasting legacy of AEV2011

There will be five conferences at European level, highly visible in many cities in Europe. Bring together stakeholders from the worlds of volunteering, business and governments to discuss issues of importance on volunteering and its challenges.