Brussels, 25 November 2013
Third Annual Convention on the European Platform
against Poverty and Social Exclusion
26-27 November, Brussels
Growth must benefit all age and population groups,
including the most vulnerable!
Following the launch of the Annual Growth Survey for 2014 and at the eve of the third Annual Convention on Poverty, AGE calls on the European Commission and Member States to consider public spending as investment for growth to ensure adequate and sustainable social protection for all. Poverty figures should be broken down per age and gender groups in order to highlight the need to address the persisting poverty among older women and the very old who face much higher poverty risks than other age and population groups.
‘Solidarity and a comprehensive long-term social vision should underpin EU growth policy if we want to avoid the exclusion of the most vulnerable at every stage of life’ , insists Anne-Sophie Parent, Secretary General of AGE Platform Europe.
AGE members welcome the European Commission’s efforts to better address the social consequences of the crisis, in particular the proposal of a new scoreboard of social and employment indicators presented in the communication on the Economic and Monetary Union. ‘But this will not be enough; the proposed scoreboard should also take into consideration the specificity of old age poverty, in particular among older women and the oldest old’, continued Anne-Sophie Parent. ‘We would like the Commission and Member States to go a step further and, through the European Semester in 2014, reinforce the economic reforms with social measures crucial to guarantee an inclusive growth for all’.
AGE called for the 2014 Annual Growth Survey to bring a comprehensive approach to both economic and social challenges, while addressing demographic ageing and meeting the needs of our ageing populations. AGE members believe that, in order to address the social consequences of the crisis, public spending must be seen as investment for growth and, therefore, should be used more efficiently to ensure adequate and sustainable social protection for all.
AGE therefore calls on the Commission to:
- Reflect the situation of older workers and old-age poverty in the proposed scoreboard of employment and social indicators ;
- Reinforce economic measures and reforms of public finances with genuine social measures to improve social conditions of all citizens at every stage of life;
- Promote minimum common social standards which would help Member States to address social inequalities;
- Integrate civil society as equal partner in developing and implementing European and national policies and reforms.
AGE’s full message and policy recommendations are detailed in our message to the 3rd Annual Convention on Poverty and Social Exclusion.
END
Useful links:
- AGE message to the 3rd Annual Convention of Poverty and Social Exclusion
- AGE letter to President Barroso and AGE press release, sent in October in response to the EC communication on the social dimension of the EMU
- AGE publication ‘Older people also suffer from the crisis, (November 2012), which gives an overall assessment of various difficulties older people encounter on daily basis in this time of crisis
- European Commission report on the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
