Connect spoke at the Shadow Meeting with Stakeholders of the Committee on Culture and Education at the European Parliament in Brussels, contributing to discussions on the future Erasmus+ programme 2028–2034.

During the session on volunteering, Connect strongly advocated for the recognition and institutional support of e-volunteering as an essential and legitimate form of civic engagement.  

Some key recommendations presented:

● Establish a harmonized EU definition recognizing digital and hybrid volunteering as complementary to traditional volunteering

● Integrate e-volunteering into Youthpass and academic credit systems such as ECTS with full funding equivalent to in-person volunteering

● Include online volunteering as a formal component of the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) and Erasmus Virtual Exchanges

● Create European-level quality standards defining what quality, safety, and meaningful participation look like in online and hybrid volunteering 

●Develop training, capacity-building modules, and organizational standards helping organizations integrate e-volunteering structurally into their operations

● Ensure digital experiences receive the same safeguards as physical volunteering

Connect emphasized that digital has become a core part of daily life and that forms of volunteering are changing. As volunteering increasingly moves into digital spaces, EU policies must ensure that e-volunteering is properly recognized, supported, and integrated into future Erasmus+ frameworks to reflect both long-term digitalization effects and the reality of young people. 

You can read our e-volunteering full policy recommendations: