AGE Platform Europe congratulates Mr Juncker for his election as President of the European Commission. Older Europeans took note with great interest of his commitment to appoint a Commissioner in charge of the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and now hope this person will take forward an ambitious agenda to protect EU citizens’ rights, regardless of their age.

Today, the European Parliament elected Mr Juncker for a 5 year term as President of the European Commission with a comfortable majority. He now has few days to finalise his list of portfolios to constitute the new Commission. This is a key moment to ensure that Mr Juncker’s commitments are taken forward by the next College of Commissioners.

AGE welcomes the promise to appoint a Commissioner in charge of the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We believe such position will help the EU to adopt a coherent and coordinated approach to address the situation of fundamental rights in all EU Member States.

EU’s approach to the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights has been so far on an ad hoc and fragmented basis and there is incoherence between how rights are addressed in EU’s internal and external action, which entails important disparities about how EU citizens can access their rights.

We therefore hope that the new Commissioner will take concrete steps to render the interventions of the EU institutions and the Member States in the area of fundamental rights more structured, better coordinated, effective and accountable.We further expect a close consultation and involvement of civil society to shape EU’s priorities in the area of fundamental rights.

Age discrimination is a key aspect here. Older Europeans are discriminated against in many areas of their lives, including access to employment and health, age limits in financial services and insurance products, and this has to stop if we want to build a Europe based on equality, fairness and inclusion.

Such Commissioner will have to play a crucial role to push as soon as possible the EU Council to adopt the long-awaited draft directive on equal treatment, as Mr Juncker promised this morning at the European Parliament. This would give the EU the relevant tools to fight against discrimination in all areas of its citizens’ lives and would close the existing gap in the implementation of article 25 of the EU Charter.

We also call Mr Juncker to adopt an EU Strategy on Demographic change to make sure that challenges posed by the ageing of the population will be addressed adequately and in a coordinated way in the coming years.

As the largest network representing older people in Europe, we remain committed to closely collaborate with the new President and future College of Commissioners to make the EU more age-friendly.

Useful links:

AGE Manifesto for the European Elections 2014 (here)

AGE proposals for questions to the candidate President of the European Commission (here)

AGE recommendations to the new EU leaders (here)

Ahead of the election of the President of the European Commission tomorrow in Strasbourg, AGE Platform Europe calls on MEPs to check Mr. Juncker’s commitments to tackle positively population ageing. Demographic change, if addressed adequately by EU leaders, is a key opportunity to implement innovative solutions that will make Europe a better place to work and live and help the EU create new jobs and find sustainable solutions for our ageing population.

In 2012, there were 190 million people aged 50 years and over in the EU, up from 178 million five years previously, according to Eurofound. Huge impacts on Member States’ social security systems are expected in the coming years.

Demographic and climate changes are two major challenges facing Europe. They are also the two main areas where huge opportunities for economic growth, innovation and social justice can be developed in the coming decade if there is political will behind.

The next President of the European Commission will have a key role to play to reinforce the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy to ensure fair and sustainable growth and prosperity of European citizens at every stage of life. But for the moment the EU is lacking a coordinated approach to demographic change.

AGE calls on EU leaders to adopt an EU Strategy on Demographic Change to help coordinate and build synergies between EU policies on which demographic change have an impact. This includes the social dimension of the European Semester, the situation of fundamental rights, the realisation of EU citizens’ rights in the internal market and the implementation of the Structural funds.

In this framework, a EU Strategy on Demographic Change should become a main vector for economic growth and help EU Member States and regions adapt to the needs of their rapidly ageing populations in ways that are sustainable and fair to all generations and ensure equality between men and women. In other words, it will help create an Age-Friendly European Union.

Last week, we welcomed Mr Juncker’s recognition of the unfair social consequences of austerity measures and will carefully monitor his commitment to ensure social justice during this new term. Social assessments of reforms are key tools here to guarantee adequacy and sustainability of social security systems for all generations, regardless of their age and income.

The EU must also remain at the forefront in terms of protection of fundamental rights. This includes fighting against any form of age discrimination and we call on MEPs to question Mr Juncker on his willingness to develop all necessary tools to protect older persons’ rights in Europe, including via relaunching the stalled discussions on the draft directive on equal treatment outside employment.

AGE calls on MEPs to ask the right questions tomorrow in Strasbourg and invites them to read our proposals for questions here. These questions are backed by the European Disability Forum, the European Anti-Poverty Network, the European Women’s Lobby and the European Public Health Alliance.

Useful links:

AGE Manifesto for the European Elections 2014 (here)

AGE proposals for questions to the candidate President of the European Commission (here)

AGE recommendations to the new EU leaders (here)

Demographic and climate changes are both major challenges facing Europe. They are also the two main areas where huge opportunities for economic growth, innovation and social justice can be developed in the coming decade.

As President of the new College of Commissioners, you will have the power to reinforce the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy to ensure fair and sustainable growth and prosperity of European citizens at every stage of life.

In this framework, a new EU Strategy on Demographic Change can become a main vector for economic growth and help EU Member States and regions adapt to the needs of their rapidly ageing populations in ways that are sustainable and fair to all generations.

An EU Strategy on Demographic Change should seek to help coordinate and build synergies between EU major dossiers on which demographic change has an impact.

• Do you agree that the EU needs to adopt and implement a Strategy on Demographic Change to coordinate and build synergies between all relevant EU policy processes and initiatives to ensure that Europe 2020 delivers an EU for all ages?

Such Strategy would coordinate policies in the following areas:
- The European Semester
- Fundamental rights
- The Internal Market
- Regional policy

Specific questions have been drafted for each of the above areas.

You will find our proposals for questions here. They received support from the European Disability Forum, the European Network Against Poverty, the European Women’s Lobby and the European Public Health Alliance.

The European Union is now, more than ever crucial to young people. The EU brings benefits to young people, helps ensure their rights and is open to having young people’s voices heard; indeed young people are the most positive age group towards the EU. However, it is the view of the European Youth Forum that, in the rush to emerge from the crisis, young people’s rights are being overridden – their situation is not improving. For example, over 5.4 million young people (under 25) are unemployed in the EU – a figure which is remaining stubbornly high as the EU exits the crisis.

We in the Youth Forum believe that now the EU needs to make a strong stand for young people. We have therefore invited candidates, through its LoveYouthFuture campaign, to pledge to young people that they have a decent future. The pledges, 11 in total, highlight the importance of Europe as a solution to the problems facing its youth. The pledges include protecting young workers, volunteers and interns, providing all young people with the opportunity to have a quality education, fully implementing an improved Youth Guarantee scheme, encouraging the free movement of young people and lowering the voting age to 16. Candidates have to sign up to at least 6 of the pledges to support the campaign.

In a similar way to AGE Platform’s campaign, Love Youth Future aims to make the next European Parliament youth-friendly. We are asking candidates to commit to creating an EU where young people have access to jobs, quality education and free movement in a Europe where they define their own future. It is clear that Europe-wide problems, such as job security, unemployment, need Europe-wide solutions. Right now, the rights of Europe’s young people can be best protected through action at European level.

We welcome the fact that 240 MEP candidates from every EU Member-State have signed up to our LoveYouthFuture Pledges and have supported the campaign. There are many agreements between the Pledges and the AGE manifesto “Toward an Age-friendly European Parliament” - including working for a comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Directive, that explicitly rules out discrimination based on age. We look forward to working with AGE Platform Europe to advance our joint priorities in the new Parliament.

Elections are taken place on:

• 22 May in the UK and in the Netherlands,
• 23 May in Ireland
• 23 and 24 May in Czech Republic
• 24 May in Latvia, Malta, Slovakia, French Overseas Territories
• 25 May in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain

Results will be available Sunday evening.

Willing to ensure that older persons’ rights are a priority for the next European Parliament? Check out which MEP candidates have signed AGE Manifesto here.

CECODHAS Housing Europe, the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing in light of the- what are expected to be- most important and challenging European Elections of the modern European history has identified “9 paths to better homes for a better Europe”. In its European manifesto, the organization that represents 41 member organizations from 19 countries in Europe charters the situation in the affordable housing sector across the EU and suggests concrete measures that need to be taken.

Europe needs to deliver and improve the living conditions of those in need. This is why the proposed actions stand on three pillars that will lead to better public budgets in each Member State as well as for Europe as a whole. As stated in the manifesto that may be found online on the CECODHAS Housing Europe website:

“FIRST, we must work towards greater well-being for Europeans to restore confidence, social stability, avoid further societal inequalities and boost local job creation.

SECOND, we must support the right long-term national and European social investment by ensuring better resources for social, public and co-operative housing. This will help us move towards a more resource-efficient and healthy Europe as well as lower socio-economic costs.

And THIRD, we must ensure stable and responsible European housing markets to avoid further recession of European economy and to support sustainable growth. We must learn from past mistakes to build a better future.”

Ageing always on the housing agenda- The case of the HOST project

Age related issues have always been an integral part of the housing agenda and an important element in CECODHAS Housing Europe advocacy objectives and work. Social, public and cooperative housing sector is able to guarantee alongside with access to decent housing, which is fundamental human right, a social mix that leads to social stability within modern urban districts. Furthermore, social housing providers are in position to bring and added value and offer a wide range of services to people who have more needs such as the elderly.

CECODHAS Housing Europe has taken part in the HOST project that was recently concluded, offering some rather encouraging outcomes that are related to social housing providers and the use of technology. The Host project was launched in 2011 as a setup of experimentations and exchange of practices between 4 European countries- Italy, France, UK and Spain- and enabling the dialogue between different models of social housing organisations, such as the French generalist model of social housing and the Italian and English specialised model and the collaboration between different actors, such has housing providers, universities and institutional actors.

The main project outcomes show that a participatory, bottom up approach to the application of new devices in a living environment, i.e. when the receivers of the service, in this case the elderly, are involved in the process of designing the devices according to their needs and expectations, there is a cost efficient approach that not only leads to the creation of more functional tools, but also contributes to the creation of new relationships among elderly living in the same community. Such an approach also strengthens the relationship between the elderly and the providers of health and social care services, thus responding to the problem of isolation and providing more effective response to real needs.

Future steps

CECODHAS Housing Europe strongly believes that the affordable housing sector is tailored to the needs most elderly people have across the EU. Therefore it is committed to continue its advocacy work to better tackle these needs and make the EU and its cities and built environment more age-friendly. We will do so by investing in alliances with other devoted organisations like the AGE Platform.