What is the European Solidarity Corps?
The European Solidarity Corps is the European Union programme that funds young people to volunteer on projects that help communities, in Europe and beyond. It runs from 2021 to 2027 and is managed by the European Commission, its Executive Agency and a National Agency in each country. The rules are published every year in the European Solidarity Corps Guide; this page follows the 2026 edition.
Volunteering in the Corps is full time and unpaid, but it costs you nothing: the EU grant goes to the organisations that host you, and they cover your living costs. In exchange you give your time to a project with a clear social purpose, such as environmental protection, education, culture, social inclusion or support to refugees and migrants.
The Corps works through organisations. Every organisation that hosts or supports volunteers must hold a Quality Label, which shows it can offer safe, well-run placements. When you take part you deal with a host organisation, where you volunteer, and usually with a sending (support) organisation in your own country, which prepares you before you leave and stays in touch while you are away.
What kinds of activities can you join?
Young people can take part in four main formats:
- Individual volunteering: from 2 weeks to 12 months, usually in another country. Placements of 2 to 12 months are the classic long-term experience; shorter ones last 2 weeks to 2 months.
- Volunteering teams: groups of at least 5 young people from at least 2 countries who volunteer together for 2 weeks to 2 months. A good first step if you are not ready to leave for a whole year.
- Humanitarian aid volunteering: individual or team placements outside Europe, in countries where humanitarian operations take place, open to people aged 18 to 35 after a specific training. Read our guide to humanitarian aid volunteering.
- Solidarity projects: projects that a group of at least 5 young people designs and runs in its own local community for 2 to 12 months.
Individual volunteering can also take place in your own country (in-country volunteering), but most opportunities, and most of the ones you will find on this site, are cross-border.
Who can join the European Solidarity Corps?
You can register on the European Solidarity Corps Portal from the age of 17. To start a volunteering activity you must be between 18 and 30 on the start date; for humanitarian aid volunteering the upper limit is 35. You must legally reside in an EU Member State, in a country associated to the programme (in 2026: Iceland, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia and Türkiye) or, with some limits, in another partner country.
You do not need a degree, previous experience or a foreign language: the Guide states that no previous qualifications, educational level, specific experience or language knowledge can be required. A host organisation may ask for a more specific profile only when the tasks really need it. All the details, including how many times you can take part, are in Who can join the European Solidarity Corps?
Is it really free? What is covered?
Yes. The Guide is explicit: participation in volunteering activities must be free of charge for the volunteer. No organisation in the Corps can ask you for a participation fee. The EU grant covers:
- Travel to the project and back, through a fixed contribution based on the distance, with a higher amount if you travel by train, bus or other low-emission transport.
- Accommodation, meals (or a food allowance) and local transport, organised by the host organisation.
- Pocket money for personal expenses, a fixed daily amount that depends on the host country: between 4 and 12 euro a day in 2026.
- Insurance, from the day you leave until 2 months after the end of your activity.
- Language support, training sessions and a mentor during your placement.
Visa, residence permit and vaccination costs can also be covered as exceptional costs. The full list, with the pocket money for each country, is in Is the European Solidarity Corps free?
Where can you volunteer?
Individual volunteering and volunteering teams take place in the EU Member States and in the countries associated to the programme. Young people from partner countries outside the EU can also join projects in Europe, within a share of the budget that each project can use for them. Humanitarian aid volunteering takes place outside Europe, only in countries where humanitarian operations are running and where there is no ongoing armed conflict. No activities can take place in Belarus or Russia.
On this site you can filter open projects by destination country, topic and duration on the opportunities page.
How do you apply?
The path is the same for most projects:
- Create your profile on the European Solidarity Corps Portal.
- Choose a project that matches your interests and dates.
- Apply with your CV and a motivation letter. On this site you apply through a sending organisation of our network in your country of residence; if there is none, the network finds one for you.
- Take part in an interview with the host organisation.
- If you are selected, sign the volunteering agreement, prepare your travel and attend the pre-departure training.
Selection is done by the organisations, which pick volunteers among the young people registered on the Portal. Step-by-step advice is in How to apply to the European Solidarity Corps.
What do you get out of it?
Besides the experience itself, the Corps gives every long-term volunteer a support structure:
- Training: a pre-departure training for cross-border activities, an on-arrival training, a mid-term evaluation for activities of 6 months or more, and the General Online Training on the EU Academy platform.
- Online Language Support: free courses in the language of your project, for activities of 2 months or longer.
- A mentor at the host organisation who helps you settle in and reflect on what you are learning.
- Youthpass, a certificate that describes the skills you developed, and a certificate of participation you can add to your CV.
Many volunteers say the biggest gain is less formal: living on your own in another country, working in an international team and learning to solve problems in a language that is not yours.
What happens if something goes wrong?
You are never on your own. Before you leave, you sign a volunteering agreement that lists your tasks, your rights and your responsibilities, so you know what to expect. During the placement your mentor is the first person to talk to about everyday problems. If the issue is with the host organisation itself, your sending organisation acts as a mediator between you and the host. Above them, the National Agency of the host country and the Executive Agency monitor projects and can step in when the quality standards are not respected.
Health problems and accidents are covered by the Corps insurance, which complements your European Health Insurance Card. Get the card before you leave: using it whenever possible is mandatory.
How is it different from paid volunteering abroad?
Many websites sell “volunteering” trips that cost hundreds or thousands of euro. The European Solidarity Corps works the other way round: the EU pays the organisations, and the volunteer pays nothing. If you are comparing options, read our guide to free volunteering in Europe, which explains how to recognise paid offers and which other programmes are free.