Europees Parlement komt met rapport over vergrijzing en sociale stelsels (en)

The increasing ageing population will affect social security systems. In this own-initiative report, MEPs express their preoccupation with maintaining the core of European social models. Encouraging higher employment rates are among the recommendations of the report.

Key points

Social security systems under pressure: The ageing population is expected to lead to increases in public spending, most of it for pensions, health care and long-term care, in most Member States by 2050 if current policies are pursued.  It will also put serious pressure on the active work force, stated the report by Gabriele Stauner (EPP-ED, DE).

MEPs recall that the core of European social models is the principle of solidarity between generations and that it is primarily financed by work-related earnings.

The trend towards individualisation could also enable people, especially women and other vulnerable groups, to have more freedom of choices and be able to build up their own, additional pension rights, stresses the report.

New ways of taxation and/or other alternatives could be also be considered to improve the financial sustainability of social pending.

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  Higher employment rates: A decreasing work force will lead to a decrease in the total number of hours worked. In order to reverse this trend, measures could be taken to reduce the unemployment rate and increase recruitment by combining training and retraining.

Higher employment rates are heavily dependent on the necessity to keep all groups active. That is why MEPs stress the need to fight discrimination on the labour market.

They also call on the Member States to create financial and social incentives in order to encourage employees voluntarily to continue to work even after reaching the statutory age limit.

Pensions

Public pension systems strengthen social solidarity and are the responsibility of Member States and safeguarding these systems should be a political priority, MEPs say. They believe that a greater use of alternatives to state-funded pensions, such as supplementary schemes, could also be a viable alternative and that pension systems need to adapt to "patchwork biographies" becoming increasingly common.

Healthcare

It is important to preserve the values and principles underpinning all health care systems of the European Union, which comprise universal coverage, solidarity in financing, equity of access and the provision of high quality health care, MEPs insist. By improving the organisation and provision of services in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity, a potential exists for both better quality and financial efficiency of health services, they underline.