Sommaire: April 8, 2002: Speech by Labour and Social Affairs Minister Juan Carlos Aparicio on behalf of the European Union at the Second World Assembly on Ageing (Madrid)
Mr Chairman, It is an honour for my delegation to speak before this World Assembly on behalf of the European Union.
Let me start by thanking the Secretary General and the Chairpersons and Executive Directors of the Organisations of the United Nations System for their excellent preparatory work. Likewise, I wish to thank the Chairperson and vice-chairpersons of the Preparatory Committee for the important efforts undertaken during the negotiation process.
We have been invited by the United Nations, twenty years after the first World Assembly in Vienna, in order to adopt an International Plan of Action on Ageing that may respond to the challenges and opportunities raised by demographic change and population ageing.
The changes that have taken place in the world during these two decades reveal quite a different future from that which we contemplated in 1982, when the first International Plan of Action was drawn up.
We are currently witnessing an unprecedented demographic transformation, as a result of which the number of persons over 60 years old will increase from the current 600 million to almost 2,000 million by 2050. Furthermore, life expectancy in the world will increase from 66 to 77 years, and the proportion of population over 60 will be multiplied from 10 to 21 per cent. Furthermore, the twenty-first century will be one of comparatively slower population growth than the previous century, and be
characterized by the declining birth rates leading to a population decline in a growing number of countries. This demographic change will have wide ranging economic and social consequences, affecting economic growth, social security systems, education systems, labour markets and health care. Thus, making changes necessary with regard to attitudes and political, social and economic measures, still linked to a pyramidal demographic structure. Therefore, at the same time there is an evolution and
a growing need of adaptation.
This "silent revolution" occurs in the midst of significant political and economic transformations, characterised by globalisation. Not only an economic globalisation, but also a social, environmental and cultural one. Likewise, a considerable epidemiological change is also taking place towards a dominant presence of chronic or ron-transmissible diseases in coming decades.
Longevity is one of humanity's major achievements. It is a universal force that has the power to model the future of our societies. Our challenge is to adapt our societies to this new reality. A concerted action is now required to give men and women the necessary opportunities and capacities to enjoy the appropriate quality of life during old age including the oldest old and to ensure social viability in this context.
We take advantage of this occasion to reaffirm the important commitment agreed in the Millennium Assembly to promote national and international environments that encourage a society for all ages.
Furthermore, we underline the need to include ageing as a core item in the agendas for Development, particularly, in strategies to fight against poverty, paying special attention to the priority needs and prospects of the developing countries. This inclusion must take into account the need to follow up, in an integrated and co-ordinated manner, the World Summits and Conferences held during the nineties, especially those that stem from the World Conference on Population and Development held in
Cairo, the World Conference for Social Development held in Copenhagen, the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing and their follow-up processes.
The implementation of the United Nations International Year for Older Persons, following the theme "Towards a society for all ages" contributed to approach ageing and the situation of older persons issues from a wider perspective and to create greater awareness, underlining inter-relations between ageing and development and aspects related to solidarity between generations and social cohesion, ensuring policies that consider ageing as a continuous process that covers our whole life cycle,
starting in the first stage of our life. The experiences resulting from projects jointly implemented by "inter-aged" groups, constitute a way of innovation parallel to the need of inventing new ways of life or adapting old ones.
The European Union was one of the first areas of the world to recognize the specific problems of an ageing society as a consequence of demographic change. Over the last few years, given the common challenges they faced, Member States committed themselves at a national and at a European Union level to tackling different aspects of ageing, in the field of public finances rationalization, employment, social protection, sustainable development and the effects ageing has on the various population
groups. The European Union has also included the fight against age discrimination in the Constitutive Treaty of the European Community and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
As it has been highlighted by the Commission of the EU in its Communication entitled "Europe's answer to ageing on a world level", the Second World Assembly represents an opportunity to adopt common approaches to tackle the challenges raised by ageing on a world level and supports the efforts made by the United Nations with regard to defining a global action framework.
Therefore, the European Union's answer to ageing is included in the framework of a global strategy formed by mutually reinforcing policies which started at the Lisbon European Council, and have subsequently been endorsed at the European Councils of Nice, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Laeken and Barcelona. This strategy, aimed at pursuing policies and practices in favour of active ageing, intends to take the maximum advantage of the capacities all citizens have as active agents and full participants in
society, regardless of their age.
Against this background, the EU underlines the important role Regional Commissions will play in the implementation of the revised International Plan of Action on Ageing. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, UNECE, decided in 1999 to convene a ministerial conference with the objective to develop and adopt a regional strategy. The regional strategy will equally address the needs of all age groups and socio-economic groups. At the same time, we need to analyse and address which
effects demographic change has on various sectors like the economy and the social security system, the health system and the educational system.
The European Union has been actively involved in the works of the revised Plan of Action which we will adopt this week during the World Assembly. I would now like to refer briefly to some of the main issues we have supported during the preparatory process: We believe that reaffirmation of our commitment to full protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms for everyone, regardless of their age, must be a priority in the International Plan.
Given their qualifications, experience and knowledge, older persons are a basic resource for the development of all societies. Thus, Governments must promote the positive aspects of ageing, those that encourage a more realistic perception of older persons as active and independent individuals. We must also create the conditions in which older persons can enjoy a full healthy and secure life, and participate actively in the political, economic, social and cultural life of our societies.
Likewise, we must take on commitments to prevent and adequately react against the violence, neglect and abuse suffered by older persons, especially women. In this fight, it is essential to raise the awareness of the population in general, to reinforce the legal measures and to offer the victims mechanisms of protection and support.
The International Plan of Action on Ageing must reaffirm that older persons have to be given the possibility to continue to contribute productively to the society, fulfilling their role in the families and in the community, including their labour market participation as long as they wish, and in accordance with respective legislations, including collective agreements and systems of social protection. Flexibility and diversification of opportunities, within a framework of rights, is particularly
important.
In order for older persons to voluntarily continue to contribute to the labour market, we consider that it is essential to fight against any exclusion or discrimination on grounds of age, to encourage life long learning, to promote flexible and progressive retirement, to reinforce the measures to increase labour participation of women, as well as the promotion of health, economic and social security, adaptability and employability.
To this end, the European Union has committed itself to increasing the employment rates of the Union until 2010. The objective is to reach 70% for the whole working-age population, and over 50% with regard to the older workers.
The Barcelona European Council has highlighted the need to reinforce efforts in order to increase opportunities for a continued presence of older persons in the labour market, e.g. through flexible and gradual retirement programmes and by presenting effective access to life long learning. The goal is to progressively increase the average age of effective retirement in the European Union by 2010.
Social protections systems constitute one of the fundamental cornerstones of social cohesion. The International Plan of Action must reaffirm the generation contract and the need for their generalisation, as well as ensure their viability in the future. The effective raising of the retirement age, together with the increase in employment are measures aimed at achieving the future viability of the pension systems. The Barcelona European Council has underlined the importance to speed up the reform
of the pension regimes, in order to guarantee their financial sustainability as well as to allow them to go on achieving their social objectives.
Likewise, the European Union has committed itself to reinforcing social cohesion and combating against social exclusion.
Achieving a healthy and active ageing also requires that the International Plan of Action gives priority to strategies geared towards the promotion of healthy life styles throughout the life course, the maintenance of functional capacity and independence and the provision of qualified training for health and social professionals. To this end, it is particularly urgent to guarantee a multi-disciplinary training for all categories of professions working in the health or social services that have
a more frequent contact with older persons. The improvement of working conditions in hospitals, rest homes and home care are a top priority for the rights of care professionals and for those of users.
We must reaffirm the primary responsibility of Governments to ensure the provision of universal and equal access to efficient social and health care services, guaranteeing a high level of quality in these services and taking into account the needs of those groups with special needs, such as persons with disabilities. In many countries, the provision of social services significantly benefits from the support of active citizens and non-governmental organizations.
In this context, the key role played by families, volunteers, communities, organizations of older persons and other community-based organizations in the provision of support and informal care for the older persons must be acknowledged, as a complement to that provided by governments.
The inclusion of the gender perspective, as a crosscutting concern in the ensemble of the International Action Plan on Ageing and in the actions for its future implementation is also an essential issue.
Older women must be the object for priority care in the policies on ageing, not only because they represent the majority of the older population and because their life expectancy is greater, but also because they suffer the effects of discrimination in the different stages of their life, which affect their life during the old age labour participation, salaries, social security rights, responsibility of informal care, etc.
The International Plan must stress the reinforcement of the relation among the generations as an essential element for social cohesion. It is important that older persons and young ones think together about adapting their ways of life so as to achieve a better life quality by 2050 and beyond.
Governments have a major responsibility in the achievement of the objectives to create a society for all ages and in the implementation of the revised International Plan of Action. Nevertheless, together with the establishment of priorities, the said objective requires effective collaboration between local and national governments, international agencies and organizations, and other actors of civil society, including social partners, NGOs and especially organizations of older persons as well as
an effective monitoring process, to be developed and coordinated through the relevant bodies of the United Nations in cooperation with Governments and NGOs.
The collaboration between public and private sectors is important in terms of mobilisation of the necessary funds for research, training of professionals in geriatrics and gerontology, and assistance to the countries for implementation and follow-up activities.
We stress the importance of a comprehensive world agenda for research on ageing and related matters, as an interdisciplinary instrument to draw up policies on ageing and the need to have information systems capable of issuing harmonised and reliable data and indicators. This instrument must be accessible for international organizations and agencies, governments at all levels and all actors of civil society. We call upon the United Nations System to contribute to the rapid development and to the
continuing updating of the world research agenda on ageing.
Finally, we have also highlighted the importance of adopting regional strategies for the implementation of the Plan of Action to bring the Plan closer to the specific particularities of every region.
Mr. Chairman, The World Assembly, which meets in Madrid, constitutes an acknowledgement of the inclusion of ageing in the international global agenda on Development. We deem this inclusion necessary for there exists an important consensus that we hope to see reflected, when we finish our work, in the adoption of the revised International Plan of Action.
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