Members of the EU's political assembly representing local and regional authorities adopted in December an opinion on "European Solidarity Corps and the New EU's Youth Strategy" drafted under the leadership of ECR Group Member Matteo Bianchi (Mayor of Morazzone and Member of Italian Parliament).

The position paper was prepared in response to the European Commission's proposal to establish the European Solidarity Corps. The European Solidarity Corps is the new EU initiative which creates opportunities for young people to volunteer or work in projects in their own country or abroad that benefit communities and people around Europe.

Underlining the need for a strong local dimension, the rapporteur Matteo Bianchi said: "we want to stress that the needs and demands of local communities should be an important quality criterion for identifying eligible projects".

Mr Bianchi stressed that the role of local volunteering needs to be strengthened, pointing out that many young people take part in local community projects whose contribution to civic engagement, social inclusion and countering migration from rural to urban areas should be highlighted.

Another important proposal in Mr Bianchi's draft opinion concerns the new EU youth strategy for 2019 to 2027. The European Commission proposes to establish an EU youth coordinator, in order to give young people a voice in shaping EU policies. Commenting on this new EU-level position, Mr Bianchi underlined that "given that the new EU youth coordinator will not be able to be in contact with all European regions, I propose to organise regular meetings between the CoR and the new EU youth coordinator in order to establish structural cooperation, as they will be responsible for conveying all social needs at local and regional level on youth-related issues".