The challenge. Across Europe, youth trust in democratic institutions is declining, voter turnout among young first-time voters remains fragile, and political efficacy — the belief that one's participation matters — is at a historic low. The new strategy must go beyond awareness-raising and provide young people with concrete, meaningful democratic experiences.

Volunteering as an effective response. ESC data provides a compelling, evidence-based counter-narrative: 65% of ESC participants report increased motivation to engage in social and political community life, and 72% gained a better understanding of democracy, justice, and equality (EC Interim Evaluation). Recent research confirms that participation in volunteering boosts young people's political interest, knowledge, and confidence, and increases their likelihood of voting in their first elections (SALTO ESC, 2024). Volunteering benefits individuals and communities of all ages, as highlighted in the 2026 UN State of the World’s Volunteerism Report. Youth volunteering, in particular, is a strategic investment in Europe’s democratic future and peaceful societies.

The new EU Youth Strategy should recognise organised volunteering as a valuable instrument for its democratic participation objectives — not as a peripheral activity, but as a structural civic education mechanism at scale.

The challenge. Growing inequalities, urban-rural divides, and post-pandemic social fragmentation have weakened the bonds of community across European societies. Youth policy has a direct role to play in rebuilding social trust and cohesion — but it requires tools that operate at the level of lived experience, not institutional communication.

Volunteering as an effective response. Volunteering produces measurable social cohesion outcomes: RAY research confirms that European Solidarity activities strengthen solidarity (75.2%), promote social inclusion (70.4%), foster active citizenship (68.7%), and build a more inclusive society (73.4%) according to project leaders (RAY SOC, 2025). At programme level, 96% of respondents confirm that ESC positively impacts communities and societal groups (EC Interim Evaluation).

The new strategy should position volunteering — including locally-anchored, youth-led solidarity initiatives — as a building block of its social cohesion agenda, recognising its unique capacity to generate trust and belonging at community level.

The challenge. 46% of young people in the EU experienced emotional or psychosocial challenges in the past year (Eurobarometer 2024). Loneliness, anxiety, depression, and loss of purpose have become defining features of post-pandemic youth experience across Member States. The new strategy must integrate mental health as a mainstream priority — and identify policy tools that reach young people beyond clinical settings.

Volunteering as an effective response. Quality volunteering provides young people with meaningful opportunities to connect, contribute and develop, addressing key protective factors for mental health. It helps reduce loneliness, fosters a sense of belonging, strengthens emotional resilience, and builds self-esteem and purpose through meaningful community engagement. The ESC Interim Evaluation confirms that volunteering strengthens community ties and creates inclusive spaces where young people feel accepted and valued. Importantly, 26% of ESC participants reported mental health difficulties when joining the programme, demonstrating that volunteering successfully reaches young people who need support. Rather than replacing clinical care, volunteering offers a proven, community-based approach to promoting wellbeing and preventing social isolation. This is recognised by the OECD (2022), which identifies volunteering as an accessible tool for strengthening wellbeing, resilience and social cohesion.

The post-2027 strategy should make this connection explicit — embedding volunteering in its mental health and wellbeing framework.

The challenge. Despite successive inclusion commitments in EU youth policy frameworks, structural inequalities persistently limit participation. The new strategy must move from aspirational inclusion language to measurable, tool-specific commitments tied to programmes that demonstrably reach those furthest from opportunity.

Volunteering as an effective response. The European Solidarity Corps has the strongest inclusion track record of any EU youth mobility programme. Participation by young people with fewer opportunities rose from 25% in 2018 to 40% in 2023 — nearly three times the Erasmus+ programme average (15%) and significantly above Erasmus+ Youth (24%) (EC Interim Evaluation; SALTO I&D 2023). The participant profile is unambiguous: 40% were unemployed upon joining, 26% faced mental health difficulties, 17% lived in remote areas, 11% had experienced discrimination. Four out of five organisations confirm the programme effectively supports young people with fewer opportunities (EC Interim Evaluation).

The new strategy's inclusion agenda should identify volunteering — with its accessible formats, expense coverage, domestic options and support structures — as a reference model for inclusive youth policy design.

The challenge. Youth unemployment and underemployment remain structurally elevated in multiple EU Member States. The transition between education and the labour market is particularly difficult for young people without prior professional experience, those who left formal education early, or those facing cumulative disadvantage. The new strategy's education and employment axis must incorporate pathways beyond formal credentials.

Volunteering as an effective response. ESC volunteering functions as a first professional stepping stone for thousands of young Europeans. At application, 51% of applicants and 40% of participants faced difficulties finding employment, and 41% cited gaining professional experience as their primary motivation (EC Interim Evaluation). The programme delivers: 90% report improved skills, confidence and opportunities, with documented growth in teamwork, communication, project management, resilience and adaptability. Language acquisition is concrete: one in three participants reached B2 proficiency in a foreign language (EC Interim Evaluation). These outcomes directly align with the Union of Skills initiative and OECD recommendations on practice-based skill-building.

The new strategy should acknowledge the formal recognition of skills competencies acquired through volunteering — through Youthpass, Europass, and national validation frameworks like the NQF — as a key element of its skills and employment agenda.

The challenge. Top-down youth policy too often fails to activate young people's own agency and capacity to address challenges in their communities. The new strategy needs to create space for youth-led, locally-anchored action — not merely as pilot experiments, but as a recognised and supported policy pathway.

Volunteering as an effective response. Solidarity Projects — small-scale, youth-designed and youth-led volunteering initiatives addressing local needs — demonstrate what happens when young people are given the tools and trust to act. Over half of participants rate their Solidarity Project experience as maximally meaningful (RAY 2023), and RAY research consistently documents strong effects on self-efficacy, leadership, and the conviction that young people can make a meaningful difference (RAY Solidarity Projects Fact Sheet).

The new strategy should recognise youth-led community action as a strategic objective in its own right, and draw on the Solidarity Projects model as evidence that low-threshold, high-impact formats can activate even the most disengaged young people.

The challenge. European identity among young people cannot be built through communication campaigns. In a context of rising nationalism and Euroscepticism, the new strategy must invest in experiences that create authentic, felt connection to Europe — through encounters, shared purpose, and cross-cultural understanding.

Volunteering as an effective response. ESC data is striking: 71% of participants felt a stronger European identity following their experience, 81% of organisations observed more positive attitudes towards the EU in their communities (EC Interim Evaluation). Participant outcomes reinforce this: 24% report feeling "more European", 36% report greater cultural awareness, 35% improved language skills and intercultural openness (EC Interim Evaluation). Volunteering creates European identity not through narrative but through shared experience and common purpose — a qualitatively different and demonstrably more durable outcome than passive exposure to EU communication.

The new strategy should position volunteering as one of the EU's identity-building tools for youth.

The challenge. Europe's exposure to compound crises — pandemic, war, climate disasters, disinformation, democratic backsliding — has made societal resilience a central strategic priority for the EU. Youth policy must contribute to resilience-building in concrete, measurable ways, extending beyond awareness-raising to genuine civic preparedness.

Volunteering as an effective response. The ESC's record during multiple crises — COVID-19, the Ukraine refugee response, natural disasters — demonstrates its unique role as a flexible, community-level resilience mechanism. ESC participation strengthens personal resilience, adaptability and civic awareness, with nearly 75% of participants reporting increased solidarity and civic engagement (EC Interim Evaluation). ESC has proven itself a concrete crisis response pathway: it mobilised volunteers at scale during Ukraine solidarity operations and natural disaster responses, adapting its operations faster than any comparable institutional mechanism (European Parliament Implementation Report 2023).

The new strategy should link volunteering to the EU's preparedness and resilience agenda, recognising organised youth volunteering as a genuine policy asset for European societal security.

The challenge. Youth policy cannot be limited to EU borders. Europe's geopolitical context requires active investment in people-to-people connections with neighbouring regions — particularly in contexts where democratic values, civic space, and pro-EU sentiment are contested. The new strategy needs an explicit external youth dimension, grounded in concrete cooperation.

Volunteering as an effective response. ESC cooperation with partner countries generates documented, measurable pro-democratic effects beyond EU borders. 92% of partner-country organisations and 87% of programme-country organisations report that their networks were meaningfully extended through cooperation projects (RAY NPC 2024). Cooperation projects foster pro-European attitudes, strengthen civic engagement, and deepen understanding of democracy and human rights in neighbouring regions — producing outcomes that no diplomatic tool alone can replicate.

International volunteering is deeply rooted in Europe’s peace project. Emerging after the World Wars, it brought together young people from former enemy countries to rebuild communities and foster reconciliation, solidarity, and lasting peace. This historical foundation underlines that volunteering is not only a policy tool, but a long-standing mechanism for peacebuilding, peace education and European cooperation.

The new strategy should recognise volunteering as a tool of EU external youth policy — a soft power instrument grounded in solidarity and shared experience, with dedicated cooperation frameworks for the Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership, and Southern Mediterranean.

The challenge. A persistent structural weakness of EU youth policy frameworks has been the gap between strategic ambition and measurable delivery. The new strategy risks the same fate unless it commits to robust, outcome-oriented monitoring that links strategic objectives to programme-level evidence.

Volunteering as an effective response — and as a model. The ESC is among the best-evaluated youth programmes in the EU portfolio, with multi-source, longitudinal data covering participant outcomes, organisational impact, community effects, and cost-effectiveness. Solidarity Projects achieve a cost-per-participant of €1,274; volunteering of €5,159 — compared to ~€44,654 per volunteer in UN Youth Volunteers programmes (EC Interim Evaluation). Despite chronic oversubscription — 80,000 applications for 42,903 places in 2021–2022, with 100% budget absorption — the quality of outcomes has remained consistently high.

This evaluation architecture should serve as a template for the new strategy's monitoring framework: common indicators, disaggregated data by inclusion profile, longitudinal tracking, and regular public reporting against the 11 European Youth Goals. A credible strategy requires credible evidence — volunteering provides both.