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The European Solidarity Corps (ESC) is the EU volunteering program that supports solidarity activities in a wide range of sectors, enabling boys and girls to take part in projects at home or abroad.
Each project has a benefit for the communities and/or the host institutions, but also for the volunteers who take part in it, who have the opportunity to acquire or develop skills useful for their personal growth and, ultimately, also for their professional development.
Volunteer activities can be on practically any topic and to carry out any type of activity that can contribute to the "community good" host or contribute to strengthening civil society, the culture and practice of solidarity, active and democratic participation.
A list, certainly not exhaustive, of activities can include projects for the protection of the environment or for the promotion and protection of cultural heritage, or for the social inclusion and participation of disadvantaged people (in economic or social difficulty, belonging to minorities, migrants, etc.), for the promotion of rights of minorities, to combat discrimination, including gender discrimination; and again for the protection of health and the promotion of healthy lifestyles, for the strengthening of associations not only among young people, to support education and training and the inclusion within them of people in difficulty.
The transversal priorities of the Programme
The European Solidarity Corps is, together with Erasmus +, one of the main implementation tools of the European strategy for young people and for achieving European youth objectives, through 4 horizontal priorities that apply to all activities and Actions.
Horizon Europe missions
To these four priorities, the European Solidarity Corps also adds the priority of synergy with Horizon Europe missionswhere it is possible to contribute to actions for climate adaptation, restoring oceans and waters, restoring healthy soils, promoting climate and health, promoting climate-neutral and smart cities and improving lives of people affected by the crisis.
Participants and type of activity
The program, which involves male and female volunteers starting from 18 years, includes three types of projects.
Volunteer projects
Projects that offer young people aged 18 to 30 volunteering opportunities in Europe or in their own country.
They are divided into “Volunteering teams” which involve up to 40 volunteers and last from 2 weeks to 2 months, and “Individual volunteering” which can last from 2 to 12 months. For individual volunteering, projects in the same country are only open to male and female volunteers with fewer opportunities.
Solidarity projects
Projects that must be developed and implemented by groups of at least 5 young people up to 30 years old in their own country, in order to jointly address problems and challenges of local communities. They last from 2 to 12 months.
Humanitarian aid
Projects, open to young people aged 18 to 35, which offer the opportunity to play an active role and show solidarity towards people living in countries outside the EU and facing humanitarian disasters of various types , or improve their preparation to face future challenges.
All projects, with the exception of Solidarity Projects, must have a "Quality labels", a sort of "Certificate of Guarantee" issued by the competent Agencies which certifies the quality, effectiveness and correct organization of the activities, as well as the reliability of the organizations involved. The agencies that take care of the implementation of the program are national ones, except for Humanitarian Aid and projects in high priority areas, which are managed by the EACEA.
| European Solidarity Corps – General information | ESC for the young people |
| ESC for organizations and entities |
ESC in your own country |
| ESC humanitarian aid in third countries | ESC in high priority areas |
| Official Program Guide (IT) (EN) | Strategy for inclusion in ESC and Erasmus+ |
| National Agencies | European Executive Agency EACEA |
This guide was created as part of the annual work plan of the European network IGNet, co-financed by the European Union. The contents of the guide reflect the views only of the authors and neither the European Commission nor any of its agencies can be held responsible for the content or any use made of it. The contents of the guide have no official value for the purposes of submitting applications and projects, for which only the official guides of the individual programs and initiatives are valid.