AGE, the European Older People’s Platform, warmly welcomes the debate that was launched by Commissioner Špidla last March with the long-awaited Green Paper ‘Confronting demographic changes, a new intergenerational solidarity’.
AGE developed its contribution in consultation with its member organisations. We also consulted with other relevant NGOs – the European Youth Forum, The European Women’s Lobby – and other stakeholders such as researchers and national authorities at a seminar we organised at the European Parliament on June 29th with the Intergroup on Ageing.
In our view, the response to demographic changes must be approached realistically and without the implicit alarmism that is contained in over-used phrases about time bombs and crises. We believe that the increased life expectancy and improved health of older people is one of the proudest achievements of recent social and economic development in Europe.
So far, the debate has focused too much on the quantitative changes in an ageing society : pensions and health care expenditure, older worker employment rates, old-age dependency ratios etc. These are important discussions, but the necessary qualitative changes to the economic, social and political structures of society deserve equal attention.
The policies of many Member States have yet to respond adequately. Policymakers across the EU need to catch up with the realities of rapid changes in demography and family and social patterns. They need also to understand the changing nature and diversity of the population, including among the elderly who are too often described as one homogenous group. Greater awareness is needed of the variability of sub-national demographic changes and the need for strategies at regional and local level. The suggestions in the Green Paper on a life-course approach for one’s career, the necessary changes to the workplace to accommodate the needs for older workers to remain active in the labour market are all crucial proposals that await concrete implementation.
In our view, the response to the demographic change must be based both on intergenerational and intragenerational fairness and solidarity. For this reason whilst supporting a focus on youth, AGE also welcomes the special attention paid to the ‘very old’ section of the population, aged 80+.
AGE is, however, more critical of the rosy picture that the Commission paints of the situation of seniors, aged 65 to 79, as all having full pension rights, high mobility and increased ability to consume goods and services. A closer look at European poverty statistics show that this picture does not accurately reflect reality : whereas some older people enjoy high levels of income from private sources, 16% of older men and 21% of older women are at a risk of poverty and in some Member States the at-risk-of-poverty rate among older women is as high as 51% !
Although we agree that many of the issues raised in the Green Paper fall within the exclusive competency of the Member States, we feel that there is an obvious need to discuss demographic change and intergenerational solidarity at EU level because all these issues have tremendous implications on policies which are of EU competency : i.e. the Revised Lisbon Strategy, the European Employment Strategy, the streamlining process of the OMCs on pensions, social inclusion and healthcare/long term care for the elderly as well as the EU debates around migration and education.
Most EU policies are affected one way or another by the demographic change the European Union is facing. Policy developments in very diverse areas such as employment, pensions, social inclusion, health, transport, urban development, housing, research, education and citizenship, etc. need to be better coordinated to develop an accurate understanding of what demographic change means in order to support the right policy response.
AGE would like therefore to recommend that the Commission publish an annual report on the EU response to demographic change summarizing what Member States and EU institutions are doing. This would ensure better coherence between the various processes and instruments involved and would provide policy makers and citizens with a useful overall picture of progress achieved and failures to be addressed. This annual report should be launched and debated in an annual EU Roundtable on Demographic Change involving all relevant stakeholders, including the European Parliament and national policy makers.