The European Year of Volunteering (EYoV) 2011 is a celebration of the commitment of millions of people in Europe who work in their communities during their free time without being paid - for example in schools, hospitals, and sports clubs, protecting the environment, providing social services and helping people in other countries. Their efforts and those of the many thousands of volunteering organisations make a huge difference to our lives in countless ways.

The Year is also a challenge to the three-quarters of the European population who do not do any volunteering. We would like to say to them that they can also make a difference. The world would be much worse off without volunteers! Leeds launched its involvement with the EYoV on Tuesday 7 December 2010 by hosting an international conference.

• Details of what happened across Europe are on the offical European Year of Volunteering 2011 website.

A 'Study on Volunteering in the European Union' produced by the European Commission as part of the European Year of Volunteering is now available. From the UK's point of view the report highlights just how high levels of volunteering are in the UK in relation to other parts of Europe. The UK was in the category "very high" with Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden with over 40% of adults involved in volunteering.

A number of recommendations are made about setting up and improving the infrastructure frameworks in Europe to encourage volunteering in those countries where volunteering is relatively poorly developed, for example: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia and Spain (10%-19% of adults) and Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Lithuania (under 10%).

As well as the main study there a national reports for each country including the UK. The report highlights the differences in volunteering approaches between countries - highlighting some of the same issues concerning legal structures and funding that were raised at the Leeds European Volunteering Conference in December 2010.

The study and national reports are available to download from the European Commission Website