A new, remunerated citizen service will be financed to the sum of €7.5 million, the federal government decided at its budget meeting on Monday evening.
Some 1,000 young people will be able to take part, receiving €550 a month while retaining their social rights, such as family allowances.
Deputy Prime Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne, who is also Minister of Economic Affairs, called the approval of the service a “great victory.”
“A few days ago, 300 young people formed a human chain to hand me 315 communal charters calling for a legal status for citizen service,” said Dermagne, who is from the Socialist Party (PS). “We had to listen to this request for the sake of young people and the community,” he explained in a press release, adding that he had supported this initiative from the outset.
Ecolo-Groen, also in the majority, welcomed the measure and the government’s approval of the bill, following “requests relayed by Georges Gilkinet within the government and Marie-Colline Leroy who, when she was a parliamentarian, met the platform on several occasions,” the party said in a statement.
Citizen service has existed since 2007. Under this scheme, young people aged 18 to 25 can volunteer for a project of their choice with one of the 1,500 organisations affiliated to the Platform. From now on, they will receive an allowance.
