New Paradigm in Ageing
Policy
Some 250 people representing policy makers, social partners,
NGOs, experts from all over the world and international organisations, as
well as representatives from Community institutions, gathered in Brussels
between 15-16 November to explore the potential of active ageing strategies
and practices.
The conference was a follow-up to the Communication "Towards a Europe for all ages" (May 1999) aimed at rounding off the UN Year of Older People and drawing up the agenda on how to take the momentum into the next century. It concentrated on policies for older persons in ageing societies, seeking to strike a good balance between the macro issues of ageing and the life quality implications for individuals as they age.
Active ageing was presented as a coherent strategy to make ageing well possible in ageing societies. Active ageing is about adjusting our life practices to the fact that we live longer and are more resourceful and in better health than ever before, and about seizing the opportunities offered by these improvements. In practice it means adopting healthy life styles, working longer, retiring later and being active after retirement. Promoting active ageing is about promoting opportunities for better lives, not about reducing rights. Adequate income provision and care is a part of the agenda.
Keynote presentations dealt with the potential of active ageing approaches in employment, social protection, health, social inclusion and anti-discrimination and were followed by short reviews of Member States' experiences, while Commission representatives examined the actual and potential contributions from collaboration and programmes at Community level.
The conference paid attention to all stages of the second half of our lives: from the later stages of our working lives, through the third age where individuals are fit and resourceful, to the fourth age, where we will tend to become frail and possibly develop some form of dependency. Speakers presented active ageing as an employment friendly, socially inclusive, health promoting and economically productive form of social policy strategy.
Cabinet Member Barbara Helfferich in the opening speech underlined that active ageing offers a way to achieve the complex balances that we need to find and that active ageing could serve as an important rallying point and focus for relevant policy action in relation to ageing. Mrs Pehro, the Finnish Minister for Social Affairs and Health, placed the conference in the context of the attention given to older workers and older people's policy by the Finnish presidency, and emphasised the importance of developing holistic policy approaches to the challenges from the ageing of the population.
Chairing the opening session, Commission Director Gabrielle Clotuche expressed her satisfaction that the UN Year for older people had helped bring ageing issues back to the top of the European agenda.
In his concluding speech (EN-PDF), Director General Allan Larsson underlined that discussions had confirmed the powerful potential of active ageing strategies and indicated that a number of policy initiatives at European level are coming together to form the basis of a coherent overall strategy for a Europe for All Ages.
