We call on candidates and future MEPs to:
Empower older citizens to fully participate in the social, cultural and democratic life and promote life-long learning to facilitate their active involvement in all aspects of life:
- Make the European Parliament a central place to discuss issues of equal rights for all ages and solidarity between generations by supporting the re-establishment of the Intergroup on Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations;
- Ensure that e-Government and access to elections is supported for voters of all ages;
- Fight against ageism in political sphere and encourage older persons to stand as candidates for local, national and European elections;
- Recognise and support all various social and economic contributions older people bring to our societies, in particular to younger generations;
- Call for the recognition and support to the work of older volunteers via programming and funding of social funds and Erasmus+; fund research activities to assess the economic value of volunteering by older people;
- Call for EU initiatives to close the digital gap, including by European funds investing into digital infrastructure and supporting measures to increase digital skills of all age groups in the update of the European Education and Training Strategy ET2020;
- Combat digital exclusion and respect the right of any citizen to use traditional technologies (i.e. analogue) in order to support older persons’ right to participate equally in society;
- Call for strong users’ involvement/co-creation/co-design in EU research and standardisation work;
- Ensure that the new General Data Protection Regulation is implemented in a way that takes on board the specific challenges faced by older citizens due to the digital divide;
- Include older citizens in civil dialogue on sustainable development and intergenerational transmission of knowledge, values and culture.
