 | |  |
EDITORIAL
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This month started and ended with three important and positive news for us.
On the 4th of November the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, signed the Lisbon Treaty. Therefore the Lisbon Treaty will come into force on the 1st December 2009. It introduces important changes which will affect all of us. AVSO, together with his member organisations and its supporters will closely watch the European agenda during the next months and years.
On the 26th of November the European Parliament has voted for 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering. The EP approved the budget for financing the activities for the EYV and increased the amount initially proposed by the European Commission up to 10 million €, plus an extra million for the planning activities in 2010. The day after, 27th of November, the EU ministries for Culture met in Brussels and voted for 2011 to be the European Year of Volunteering, which is now officially nominated. Unfortunately, they decided to decrease the amount of the budget proposed by the EP and adopted a 6 million € budget plus 2 million € for planning activities in 2010. AVSO welcomes the positive vote of the Council and the European Parliament and the recognition volunteering activities are getting at all levels, especially among MEPs. For that reason AVSO would like to warmly thank all the organizations involved in lobbying the European Institutions and the MEPs involved, particularly Ms Marian Harkin, who gave a big contribution in put the volunteering on the agenda of the EP. However we regret to acknowledge that such a political recognition is not accompanied by an appropriate financial instrument.
The same day, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso unveiled the new European Commission, giving Cypriot woman Androulla Vassiliou the portfolio for Education, Culture and Youth. We look forward to a close co-operation with her and her services to further develop voluntary service at European level. We are also particular glad to acknowledge that nine women have been designated members of the next EU executive, matching the number of the outgoing college!
On the internal side: The 3rd Board meeting of the year took place last 28th and 29th October in Madrid. This meeting offered us the opportunity to start planning the AVSO activities for the next year and meet our Spanish member together with other national organisations working on voluntary service. This month AVSO Secretariat has welcomed a new staff member: Zoltan Vadkerti. Zoltan will work as Project Officer within AVSO for the next year. He has several years experience relating to the fields of volunteering and project organisation.
We wish you an interesting reading,
The AVSO Team
AVSO-THIS MONTH
Cutting the Democratic Deficit through Civil Participation
27 – 28th of October, Örebro – Sweden
AVSO actively participated to NGOForum09, where over 200 representatives of organisations from across the EU and beyond meet to discuss ways that NGOs can positively impact on society and address the democratic deficit in the EU. It was an excellent opportunity for participants to network and share knowledge on barriers to their work, and find out about issues such as volunteering and voluntary service. Much of the conference concentrated on the drafting of a text in thematic workgroups to be presented to the Swedish Presidency, containing key policy messages required by NGO’s to help bridge the democratic deficit in the EU.
Study Session on Voluntary Service and Intercultural Dialogue
26th – 30th October 2009, Budapest
AVSO and EBCO organised a Study Session in partnership with the Council of Europe – Directorate for Youth and Sport. The participants, coming from 20 different counties with average age of 25, were young people from organisations active in the youth field or human rights or conscience objection. The Study Session aimed at making the participants able to recognise the challenges of intercultural dialogue in their daily life and to give concrete responses; for this reason the programme undertook several topics (such as conflict resolution, civil activism, intercultural dialogue, voluntary service and conscience objection) which asked the full attention and involvement of the participants in the proposed activities. The venue, the Youth Centre of the Council of Europe, offered fantastic educational tools and support, which the participants and the preparatory team enjoyed.
AVSO would like to thank all the persons involved in the preparation of the study session, from the Council of Europe and from EBCO, as well as the participants, who shared their knowledge and experience and made the session a successful one.
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/youth/default_en.asp
http://www.eycb.coe.int/eycbwwwroot/index.asp?language=eng
Public Hearing on Volunteering
10th November 2009, Brussels
The Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament organised a public hearing to listen the opinion and the needs of civil society organisations on the European Year of Volunteering 2001 in order to prepare the proposal on the EYV to submit to the EP’s approval on the 26th of November.
The hearing was chaired by Ms Doris Pack (MEP) and many MEPs participated at the meeting. Among the speakers, Mr Di Caro – Director General of the Italian national youth agency – and Mr Markus Held – Director of CEV, as well as representatives from the European Commission, Mr Pierre Mairesse – Director for Youth, Sport and Citizenship, DG Education and Culture – and a representative from the Swedish Presidency. The event was highly appreciated by the organisations which participated in a high number to listen and give their opinion.
Conference: Think Future, Volunteer Together
The 19th of November, Brussels
The European Volunteer Centre organised the final conference of a project entitled “Think Future, Volunteer Together” at the European Parliament. The two years project involved five countries, sixty local organisations and one hundred senior volunteers taking part in an exchange aimed at sharing best practices and promoting community engagement and active ageing.
The one day conference was opened by Marian Harkin (MEP – ALDE Group) who is active in the European Parliament on issues related with volunteering and the organisation of 2011 European Year of Volunteering. She highlighted the commitment of the European Parliament to increase the budget for the EYV at list to 9 million of euro. Among the speakers, Mr Krysztof Iszkowski – European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affaires and Equal opportunities - gave a presentation about the changes of demographic structure of Europe which has high coherency with active ageing volunteering in the future.
The discussion among the panelists focused then in motivations, barriers, solutions and results, continuity of the programme, recommendations and suggestions from participants on Volunteering for Active Ageing.
NEWS FROM EUROPE
The Lisbon Treaty
On the 4th of November the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, has signed the Lisbon Treaty, which should soon enter into force. The Treaty, signed in December 2007 by the Head of States of the 27 member states of the European Union, was supposed to enter into force on the 1st January 2009, however not all the member states had ratified the treaty at that stage.
The last two Countries to ratify the Treaty were Ireland and Czech Republic.
Irish citizens approved the Treaty with a referendum last October after having reject it in June 2008.
The Czech President approved the treaty after the positive decision of the Supreme Court on the consistency of the treaty with the Czech constitution and after having got the opting out formula regarding the Charter of Fundamental Rights, as Poland and UK.
The Lisbon Treaty introduces important changes in the Institutions and in the decision making system. With the Treaty, the European leaders aimed to give the EU new instruments to be able to respond to the new challenges, both internal and external, of the present century.
http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/glance/index_en.htm
Barroso unveils new commission line-up
Last 27th of November, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has unveiled his new team of commissioners putting new people in all portfolios, and giving the weightiest economic posts to a Finn, a Spaniard and a Frenchman.
Containing 14 returning commissioners, including himself, Mr Barroso called his new line-up the "perfect blend of experience and new thinking." Aware of the difficulty of giving meaningful posts all commissioner nominees, Mr Barroso has hidden away the obviously weak dossiers of the last five years. The new Commissioner for Education, Culture and Youth is the Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou, which will be also in charge of Multilingualism, currently a separate post; the communications dossier, open to charges of propaganda and with no real powers, has been completely scrapped. The new Commission must gain approval from the European Parliament before it takes office for a term of office running until 31 October 2014. Commissioners-designate will appear in individual hearings before Parliamentary committees from 11-19 January. The vote of consent on the new Commission as a whole is foreseen to take place on 26 January. On the basis of the vote of consent, the Commission shall be appointed by the European Council. Then it can start working.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1837&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
http://euobserver.com/9/29062
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_designate_2009-2014/index_en.htm
Final approval of the European Year of Volunteering in 2011
On 26th of November the European Parliament has voted for the 2011 to be the European Year of Volunteering; the EP approved also the budget for financing the activities for the EYV, improving the amount proposed by the European Commission (6 million €) up to 10 million €, plus an extra million for the planning activities in 2010. AVSO welcomes the positive vote of the EP, the increased budget but also the recognition volunteering activities are getting at all levels, especially among MEPs. For that reason AVSO would like to warmly thank all the organizations involved in lobbying the European Institutions and the MEPs involved, particularly Ms Marian Harkin, who gave a big contribution in put the volunteering on the agenda of the EP.
The day after, 27th of November, the EU ministries for Culture met in Brussels and voted for 2011 to be the European Year of Volunteering, which is now officially nominated! However, they decided to decrease the amount of the budget proposed by the EP and adopted a 6 million € budget plus 2 million € for planning activities in 2010.
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/111526.pdf
http://www.euractiv.com/en/pa/european-year-volunteering-gets-eu-green-light/article-187769#
MISCELLANIOUS BRIEFING
5th December: the International Volunteering Day
International Volunteer Day (IVD) is a chance for volunteer-involving organizations and individual volunteers to promote their contributions to development at local, national and international levels. By merging UN support with a grassroots mandate, IVD is a unique opportunity for volunteer-involving organizations to work with government agencies, non-profit organizations, community groups and the private sector.
IVD was established by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 40/212 on 17 December 1985. Since then, governments, the UN system and civil society organizations have successfully joined volunteers around the world to celebrate the Day on 5 December.
http://www.unv.org/en/news-resources/resources/fact-sheets/doc/international-volunteer-day.html
Volunteers, this is your moment. Celebrate International Volunteer Day 2009!
The theme of the next International Volunteering Day – 5th of December – is “Volunteering for our Planet”, which is also a campaign runned by UNV to recognise the crucial role volunteers play in addressing environmental issues. Together with the UN's 'Seal the Deal' movement, the campaign aims to gather the number of volunteering hours and report this at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (7-18 December) in Copenhagen. A new website, www.VolunteeringForOurPlanet.org has drawn thousands of visitors to register the time they have spent as environmental volunteers since World Environment Day, 5 June, and the time they will spend until International Volunteer Day, 5 December.
http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/
http://sealthedeal2009.org/unv
12th IAVE Asia Pacific Volunteer Conference and Youth Forum opens in Kaohsiung
"Volunteerism as a Lifestyle for Social Solidarity" is the theme of this regional IAVE conference hosted by IAVE Taiwan and the Kaohsiung City Volunteer Association.
A total of 800 participants, with over 200 from overseas and some 600 local delegates, joined the opening ceremony on the 26th of November 2009. In his opening address, IAVE president Dr. Kang-Hyun Lee said at this time of economic crisis and frequent natural disasters, volunteers were needed to build trust and peace. Given the complexity of these problems, Dr. Lee challenged the delegates to find better and more creative ways to volunteer.
http://www.iave.org/content/12th-iave-asia-pacific-volunteer-conference-and-youth-forum-opens-kaohsiung
CALL FOR PROPOSALS AND TENDERS – PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS
Public Consultation in the European Citizens’ initiative
The Lisbon Treaty introduces a new form of public participation in European Union policy shaping, the European citizens’ initiative, which enables one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States to call directly on the European Commission to bring forward an initiative of interest to them in an area of EU competence.
Deadline for submitting opinions: 10th January 2010
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/citizens_initiative/index_en.htm
Call for Tender: “Feasibility Study for Actions to Support the Mobility of Literary Translators” - EACEA/2009/06
Deadline: 07/12/2009
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/about/call_tenders/2009/call_tenders_06_2009_en.php
Call for Tender: “Study on maximising the potential of mobility in building European identity and promoting civic participation in the EU” - EACEA/2009/06
Deadline: 15/01/2010
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/about/call_tenders/2009/call_tenders_06_2009_en.php
For more information about AVSO, its activities and the newsletter’s items, please visit our website www.avso.org or contact Flavia Buiarelli flavia@avso.org
|
|
 | |  |
|
Connecting to Facebook
