The values of society

It was a plenary assembly characterized by various problems on the EU’s social agenda. Meeting in Strasbourg from 21 to 24 April, the European Parliament debated such issues as the rising price of food, financial support to Galileo (the European programme of satellite navigation), and illegal immigration. MEPs then approved a report aimed at increasing the availability of organs for transplants both by facilitating donations and by fostering research in this field of medicine. Two further reports were approved by a very wide majority: one on volunteer service and the other on the fight against drugs.Support in all fields. Assistance to the poorer sections of society, to the sick and elderly people living alone, cultural, educational and sporting initiatives, safeguard of the environment and civil protection: these, according to the data presented to the EP, are the main fields in which some 100 million Europeans are involved in one way or another in volunteer service; over half of them are youth. Yet it is a sector that receives insufficient public funding, despite the fact that it is able to multiply the money received from 3 to 8 times through activities and services of various type. For these reasons “organizations of volunteer service ought to have access to sufficient and sustainable funding without excessive red tape”, agreed the EP in accepting the report of Irish MEP Marian Harkin. The document calls for exemptions from VAT and tax breaks for volunteer service associations and underlines the need for initiatives “in favour of the mobility of volunteers” and efforts to “promote cross-border projects”.A year dedicated to volunteer service? With the Harkin Report the European Parliament “encourages member states and regional and local authorities to recognize the value of volunteer service for the promotion of social and economic cohesion”. The public authorities are invited to create a permanent legal framework and to “properly consult the sector to develop plans and strategies aimed at the recognition, support, facilitation and encouragement of volunteer service”. For this sector “does not only have a measurable economic value, but may also permit significant savings for public services”, though without replacing them. The report further specifies that “volunteer service ought not to substitute paid work”. It also regrets the delay in the adoption of the “European Charter of Volunteer Service”, which ought to “define the role of organizations” in the sector “and establish their rights and responsibilities”. An appeal for 2011 to be proclaimed European Year of Volunteer Service was also made. EU, civil society and Churches against drugs. The European Parliament further underlined the role of civil society in countering the spread of drugs through campaigns of information and prevention and also by funding – in the developing countries – the re-conversion of lands that produce the raw materials from which drugs are derived. Sending out a “strong message” to Europe, the EP adopted the report of Italian MEP Giusto Catania, it in turn a response to the Green Paper on the role of civil society in drug policy produced by the European Commission. The report (passed with 600 in favour, 35 against and 32 abstentions) “recognizes the fundamental role played by civil society in promoting the emergence, definition, implementation, assessment and monitoring of drugs policies”. It also acknowledges that “churches and religious communities have a very active role to play in the fight against drugs, and their experiences should therefore be taken into account in the formulation, implementation, and assessment of drugs policies”. The EP further underlines the need to implement, in collaboration between EU, member states, civil society, parents’ associations and schools, “exhaustive information campaigns on the risks and harmful effects on physical and mental health caused by the use of drugs”. Such campaigns should also emphasize “the damaging effects of drugs on the physical and mental health of young girls, pregnant or breastfeeding women and on maternal health and the transmission of drugs between mother and foetus”. Specific assistance should also be provided for “parents with drug-addicted children”.The task of the media, the role of the Forum. The European Parliament also underlined “the vital role of the media, and particularly the digital media, in raising awareness among citizens” of the dangers of drug abuse, and call for these “to become privileged partners in the fight against drugs”. Apart from the usual media, a particular role should be played by the Internet, given its “great influence among the young generations”. In the report adopted at Strasbourg, the EP further emphasizes “the importance of the Civil Society Drugs Forum, which represents the first step towards more concrete and constructive involvement of European civil society in the dynamics of the EU in terms of the prevention of and fight against drug use”. This Forum, to which a clear mandate needs to be given, should “collaborate closely with the European Watchdog on Drugs and Drug Addiction” (OEDT).