31. 7. 98 Official Journal of the European Communities L 214/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) DECISION No 1686/98/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL of 20 July 1998 establishing the Community action programme ‘European Voluntary Service for Young People’ THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 126 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (%), Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (%), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the Treaty (*), in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 30 June 1998, (1) Whereas the Essen European Council (9 and 10 December 1994), the Cannes European Council (26 and 27 June 1995), the Madrid European Council (15 and 16 December 1995) and the Dublin European Council (13 and 14 December 1996) stressed the need to undertake new measures to promote the social and occupational integration of young people in Europe; (2) Whereas the conclusions of the Florence European Council (21 and 22 June 1996) stressed the import- ance of helping young people to become integrated into active life and, in this respect, noted with inter- est the idea of European voluntary service; (3) Whereas the Amsterdam European Council (16 and 17 June 1997) expressed its attachment to voluntary service activities; (") OJ C 302, 3. 10. 1997, p. 6. and OJ C 320, 21. 10. 1997, p. 7. () OJ C 158, 26. 5. 1997, p. 12. () OJ C 244, 11. 8. 1997, p. 47. (Y) Opinion of the European Parliament of 12 June 1997 (O] C 200, 30. 6. 1997, p. 183), Council Common Position of 16 De- cember 1997, (O] C 43, 9. 2. 1998, p. 35) and Decision of the European Parliament of 12 March 1998 (O] C 104, 6. 4. 1998, p- 206). Decision of the European Parliament of 15 July 1998. Decision of the Council of 20 July 1998. (4) Whereas the Council requested the Commission to propose practical measures to promote transnational cooperation in the field of voluntary service; (5) Whereas, in its Resolution of 5 October 1995 on cooperation with third countries in the youth field (°), the Council stressed the need to step up cooperation, particularly with regard to voluntary service, with third countries with which the Community has concluded association or cooperation agreements; (6) Whereas the European Council of 25 and 26 June 1984 asked Member States to take the necessary measures to encourage young people to take part in projects organised by the Community outside its frontiers, and recommended Member States to acknowledge as one of the objectives of their social policies the incorporation of social protection for development volunteers or the correction of short- comings in this field; (7) Whereas the Parliament has also expressed its support, on many occasions, for the development of voluntary service at Community level, in particular in its Resolution of 22 September 1995 on the estab- lishment of European civilian service (°); (8) Whereas, insofar as it fosters informal education, the policy of cooperation in the youth field is comple- mentary to the education policy enshrined in the Treaty, and whereas that policy is in need of devel- opment; (9) Whereas voluntary service activities also exist in a variety of forms in several Member States and a number of non-governmental organisations are working in this field; (10) Whereas only limited experience has been acquired thereby and whereas transnational voluntary service activities should be developed in qualitative and quantitative terms; () OJ C 296, 10. 11. 1995, p. 11. () O] C 269, 16. 10. 1995, p. 232.