The Official Year of Volunteering

The European Commission has decided to propose that 2011 be designated the 'European Year of Volunteering'.

The Council is expected to endorse this decision, after the European Parliament has been consulted, by the beginning of next year.

By dedicating 2011 to the topic of volunteering one want the member states, regional and local communities and civil society to achieve the following objectives:

1. Work towards an enabling and facilitating environment for volunteering in the EU;

2. Empower volunteer organisations and improve the quality of volunteering;

3. Reward and recognise volunteering activities; and

4. Raise awareness of the value and importance of volunteering.

The Commission expects that the European Year of Volunteering will lead to an increase in volunteeringand to greater awareness of its added value, and that it will highlight the link between voluntary engagement at local level and its significance in the wider European context.

These aims are good but of course one can see both negative and positive effects of the endorsement of voluntary work.

On the one hand we have to ask ourselves why every kind of work we engage ourselves in have to be compensated economically, on the other hand the question is: Who will engage themselves in voluntary work? Politicians, decision makers, people working within the bureaucracy, the bank managers?

No, of course not, only those who already are poorly paid, lacking the wages they ought to have if one take into consideration the importance of their work etc.

These people are already working voluntary, through the fact that their wages/salaries is correlated to the kind of work they perform.

In France there are a lot of voluntary work done by people within voluntary organisations and quite a number of people are engaged in voluntary work also in Sweden, though less.

In this case I get the impression that the governments are trying to revaluate the voluntary work, officially that is to say, in order to take advantage of people and thereby not having to compensate them for doing this kind of - often - very important work.

(Logo taken from : https://www.slideshare.net/fingalvolunteercentre/european-year-of-volunteering-2011-launch-for-fingal)