Ségolène Royal, Minister of Ecology, and Patrick Kanner, Minister for Urban Affairs, Youth and Sports, signed a declaration of commitment on Tuesday 24 February to create 15,000 civic service places for young people in the environmental sector..
The President of the Republic, François Hollande, announced at his press conference on 5 February that he wanted to "extend civic service", and as such could eventually offer more than 150,000 young people the opportunity to benefit from this scheme.
It is in this context that Ségolène Royal and Patrick Kanner signed with François Chérèque, President of the Agence du Service Civique, Gérard Mestrallet, Director of FACE and Marie Trellu-Kane, President of Unis-Cité, the agreement of the Civic Service programme "Energy transition, climate & biodiversity". An energy transition presented by the Ministry of Ecology as "the transition from a society based on the abundant consumption of fossil fuels to a more sober and ecological society". It is a new model to be invented: fairer, bringing jobs and economic activities. Within the framework of this programme, young people will be able to work in three areas: "territorial mobilisation for the energy transition", "mobilisation around the climate" and "preservation of biodiversity and landscapes".
This will enable 15,000 young people to be offered missions in this field "so conducive to youth involvement", as the Minister of the City recalled: "Each volunteer will be an ambassador for the energy transition", wished the Minister in charge of Ecology Ségolène Royal, expressing her attachment to the Civic Service mechanism, "which speaks to our common will to give every young person a chance to find themselves."
Patrick Kanner also welcomed this first signature, stating his wish to implement conventions of this type "in all ministerial perimeters, to respond to the strong desire of young people to get involved".
Among the 15,000 missions created, 5,000 will be created with the help of the Fondation Agir contre l'exclusion, which brings together major French groups and Unis-Cité, a pioneering association of Civic Service in France.