Since 1996, ICYE has been directly involved, both at international and national level, in launching and implementing the European Voluntary Service (EVS), a programme set up and funded by the European Commission (EC) to promote youth mobility and international voluntary service.

The main objectives of this programme are: to encourage youth mobility among young Europeans, to promote young people’s active citizenship, to offer learning experiences that are no longer available in the traditional centres of learning, as well as to promote co-operation in the youth field between the European Union and non-EU countries.

EVS has opened new possibilities and increased the number of long-term volunteer placements that ICYE can offer to young people. The EVS programme has also enabled ICYE to reach out and increase the participation of young people who are usually not in the position to afford and/or access voluntary service exchange programmes at a cost.

Notably, in the frame of the EC’s YOUTH Programme and EVS, the ICYE Federation and its members have developed mutually enriching partnerships with youth and voluntary service organisations and networks, such as EASTLINKS, in Central, East and South East Europe as well as in the Mediterranean basin.

Such partnerships include the organisation of theme focused and multilateral long-term exchanges of volunteers (i.e. on HIV/AIDS prevention activities, human rights and refugees issues, youth work), study sessions and visits, training courses and issue seminars on relevant questions in the fields of international volunteering and global education.