PRESS RELEASE, Brussels, 30 April 2010
Conference on Active and Healthy Ageing, Logrono, 29 April 2010
AGE Platform Europe calls for fairer solutions for all generations
Speaking at the Spanish Presidency conference on Active Ageing and Healthy Ageing inLogrono (Spain) on 29 April, Anne-Sophie Parent, AGE Platform Europe Director, called for greater cooperation and solidarity between generations as an essential element in ensuring a sustainable society for current and future generations.
“Longer life expectancy is an achievement which Europe can justifiably be proud of but this also poses challenges which have been accentuated by the consequences of the economic crisis and the evident and growing disparity between needs and ressources.” “In this context”, she added, “it is essential to raise greater awareness of the valuable contribution that older people make to society, for instance as workers, volunteers, caregivers and grandparents, and to facilitate their participation in our societies.”
Maximising the participation of older people in the lives of our communities is also vital in promoting an active and healthy ageing population for both the benefit of older people as individuals and for the sake of our European societies and their economies.
AGE Platform Europe’s key recommendations for an active ageing society include to:
- base health and long-term care on solidarity, equality and non-discrimination;
- develop innovative ways to support access to lifelong learning for all age groups;
- fight ageist attitudes in the workplace and promote more positive images of older workers
- adapt more flexible working conditions that are better adapted to older workers expectations and needs, in particular those of older women;
- remove barriers that prevent the more vulnerable members of our societies from participation in community life;
- acknowledge the contributions that older people bring to society and support their participation in both the formal and informal economies.
Ms Parent concluded that it is necessary to invest in active ageing and in initiatives at the different political levels in order to promote greater intergenerational understanding, solidarity and cooperation to ensure a fair and sustainable future for people of all ages, and that policy makers should take a more long-term vision of older people’s contribution to society to the benefit of our ageing populations.
To that purpose AGE Platform Europe, as part of a coalition of social NGOs, is calling for 2012 to be designated as the European Year of Active Ageing and IntergenerationalSolidarity.
For more information on AGE Platform Europe work on solidarity between generations: https://www.age-platform.eu/en/age-policy-work/solidarity-between-generations
Publications:
´Intergenerational Solidarity: ´the way forward´: https://www.age-platform.eu/images/stories/EN/CoverAGE/EN/21879_brochure_age_2010_en.pdf
´A plea for greater intergenerational solidarity´: https://www.age-platform.eu/images/stories/EN/AGE-Solidarity-BROCHURE-EN.pdf
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