This year, the European Voluntary Service (EVS) celebrates its 15th anniversary. Since 1996 about 50 000 young people worked as volunteers in other EU countries and outside the union. The year 2011 was announced by the Council of the European Union as the European Year of Volunteering. Throughout the year many activities, events, exhibitions and live demonstrations will be held in Europe.

Volunteers are central to unique histories and interventions, which reveal the importance of human dedication to achieve amazing results. In order to highlight the work of volunteers and to encourage others to participate and to address the challenges, the European Year of Volunteering 2011 has four main objectives:

• to lower barriers to volunteering in the EU;
• to empower voluntary organizations to improve the quality of volunteering;
• volunteering activities to be rewarded and recognized;
• to raise awareness of the value and importance of volunteering.

To achieve these objectives, the Commission encourages the exchange of good practices between Member States and voluntary organizations. The focus is on training of volunteers, accreditation and quality assurance and effective match of potential volunteers and volunteering opportunities. The European Commission promotes new European initiatives to create networks in order to stimulate cross-border exchanges and practical cooperation between voluntary organizations and other sectors, public administration and business.
Complete information about the initiative can be found at http://europa.eu/volunteering/en/tour.
In the framework of the European Year of Volunteering 2011, the European Commission finances one or two projects of European importance in each Member State. For Bulgaria projects is "Volunteer! ... through road safety" of "Open Youth" in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Municipality of Gramada, Sebaction and TOP-25.