Although the involvement of more and more young people in voluntary activities and the regulation of volunteering within youth work remain relevant issues, an overarching structural reform is not yet foreseen. 

Plans for volunteering in the 2021 - 2027 financial cycle

The 2014-2020 financial cycle of the European Union was ended, so the planning processes for the next, 2021-2027 cycle, are already underway. According to the information provided by the Ministry in 2020, they started to develop the future framework programmes and constructions and they plan to include also an operational programme on volunteering with regarding the opinion and work of the civil sector dealing with volunteering.

According to the Ministry’s preliminary ideas, the main objectives will be the following:

• further promotion the culture of volunteering,
• increasing the proportion of volunteers among the adult population and among young people,
• to increase the proportion of young people aged 18-29 who have been volunteering at some point in their lives,
• encouraging corporate volunteering and CSR activities,
• development of professional standards for volunteer training and for volunteer coordinators and mentors,
• organisational and methodological development and quality improvement,
• active involvement of Hungarian communities abroad into volunteering in Hungary,
• a stronger link between volunteering and sustainable development.

According to the Ministry, age-based segmentation is not planned for the time being, however, in the future, there could be programmes and projects related to volunteering which mainly aim the younger or older generations.