2.5 Cross-border mobility programmes
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EU programmes
Young people in the Czech Republic are offered an opportunity to participate in the European Solidarity Corps programme (ESC), EU Aid Volunteers and the Youth Chapter of the New Erasmus+ Programme.
Monitoring of participation in the EVS programme has taken place within the overall monitoring of youth programmes carried out by the RAY research network. The CR is a member of the RAY since its foundation in 2008, through its national agencies for European youth programmes. The RAY monitoring focuses on the impact of youth programmes on participants and on project leaders. Simultaneously, an ongoing census of all stays conducted within EVS or ESC stays was done by the Czech National Agency Youth between 2007-2013, within the programme Youth in Action. Statistics on the Erasmus+ Programme are collected as well and the National Agency is making them publicly available regularly. Annual Ministerial reports are created as well.
The national authority for these programmes is the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The national agency responsible for implementation and quality control is The Centre for International Cooperation in Education.
The EU Aid Volunteers programme started in 2016 in the Czech Republic. Some Czech NGOs such as the biggest People in Need are using the initiative.
Other Programmes
There are no relevant programmes that are funded (at least for 50 %) by the state.
The only cross-border voluntary programme the Czech Republic financially supports is voluntary service as defined in the Act no. 198/2002 Sb. as amended (See details in Chapters 2.2 or 2.4). The act provides a legal framework for Czech volunteers working abroad but does not regulate anything related to foreign volunteers coming to the Czech Republic. It cannot be therefore considered as a bilateral or multi-lateral programme.
It follows that it is not possible to define countries for which voluntary service is relevant, this depends on the individual projects submitted between voluntary organizations. Currently, there are no summary reports from the accreditation processes, it is therefore not possible to comment on numbers of volunteers working abroad, numbers of youth volunteers, or their destinations.
It is not possible to define specific target groups. Available data suggest that cross-border voluntary service is not a frequent phenomenon as more than 92% of accredited projects take place in the Czech territory. Currently, no quality control exists in this area.
Czech-German cross-border mobility by individuals as well as organizations, also in the field of volunteering and voluntary activities is promoted by the TANDEM - The Coordination centre for the Czech-German Youth Exchanges. It operates info portal ahoj.info and Volunteering centre providing various Czech-German voluntary activities including European Solidarity Corps.
Legal framework applying to foreign volunteers
Youth voluntary activity of foreigners is permitted by the Act On the residence of foreign nationals in the territory of the Czech Republic (Act no. 326/1999 Sb.).
It is a result of transposition of European legislation (Directive 2004/114/EC) facilitating the obtaining a long-term residence permit in case of young people volunteering in a Czech host organization.
This act enables a volunteer aged between 18 and 30 years coming to the CR to apply for a long-term residence visa (stay longer than 90 days) for the purpose of studies, i.e. a long-term study visa. Volunteers then apply for a long-term stay for the purpose of a study (Article 42d of the Act no. 326/1999 Sb. as amended). This obligation is valid also for volunteers who do not need visa for entry into the Czech Republic.
Specifically, Article 64 of the Act enables applicants to gain a visa because of:
‘e) professional practice and voluntary service of young people aged 18 to 30 years or voluntary service designed to obtain practical, professional experience by a foreigner, undertaken in a domestic host organisation as part of a project, programme or initiative of the European Union, or a similar state programme and organisationally provided by or coordinated for this purpose by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports accredited legal person established in the territory or legal person established outside the territory, which has a branch in the territory.’
Social security insurance is managed by volunteers themselves.