The Government approved the bill on voluntary work put forward by a group of MPs, including Speaker Mihai Ghimpu, First Deputy Speaker Serafim Urechean, leader of the Democratic faction Marian Lupu and leader of the Liberal-Democratize faction Mihai Godea, Info-Prim Neo reports. Minister of Youth and Sport Ion Cebanu said the bill promotes the active involvement of persons of any age, especially young people, in voluntary work and aims to increase and develop civil responsibility in people. The bill defines the principles of participation in voluntary work, the relations between the volunteers and the host institution, that is the organization that manages the voluntary work. If the volunteers do voluntary work for more than 20 hours a month, the host institution must sign a contract with them. The bill also describes the rights and responsibilities of the volunteers and the host institution, measures to stimulate voluntary work and the state support policies. Antonita Fonari, secretary general of the Council of NGOs, stressed that the voluntary work in Moldova is not sufficiently developed as there is no legal framework. “The voluntary work is not paid, but the volunteers must be provided with transport and food and these aspects should be regulated. It happens that the Labor Inspectorate asks the beneficiary institutions to explain why they do not pay these persons if they do work for them. The status of volunteer is not clear. The situation will change after the Parliament adopts the given bill,” Antonita Fonari. She also said that if the bill is passed, the volunteer experience will be taken into account when hiring young people and the volunteers will be able to take out up to five education loans a year to improve their knowledge and skills in doing volunteer work. According to the information provided by the NGOs, there are 12,000 volunteers in Moldova.