Gdansk, 2022 European Volunteering Capital

On 5 December, the Centre For European Volunteering (CEV) announced which city will be the European volunteering capital in 2022. The lucky one is the Polish city of Gdansk, after a close call with Gorizia, Madrid and Izmir.

Gdansk, a municipality with more than 580.000 inhabitants, will take over from the German city of Berlin, which will hold this position during 2021, after Padova (2020), Kosice (2019), Aarhus (2018), Sligo (2017), London (2016), Lisbon (2015) and Barcelona (2014). 

In choosing Gdansk as the European Volunteering Capital 2022, the jury has recognised that “the city demonstrates a very impressive infrastructure for promoting and ensuring quality volunteering among all age groups”.

Furthermore, the jury highlighted that Gdansk “has developed some innovative instruments to make volunteering more popular and better appreciated by the community, such as a portal for volunteering, a mobile application and the first employee volunteering programme in the public administration”.

Madrid, Gorizia and Izmir, excellent candidatures

The Jury also had a few words of thanks for the others three candidates: Madrid, Gorizia and Izmir and appreciated the efforts to ensure quality volunteering based on inclusive engagement processes and the engagement with, and interest in volunteers and volunteering, from the highest level in the administrations of these municipalities.

This competition was created in 2013 by the Centre For European Volunteering (CEV) with the aim to promote volunteering at the local level, by giving recognition to local municipalities that offer support and close collaboration with organizations and associations of volunteers or that promote altruism, as highlighted by the recommendations set out in the Policy Agenda on Volunteering in Europe. 

The competition is held every year and the winning municipality is chosen by a jury composed of many personalities from the European volunteering sector.