Launch of the Covenant on Demographic Change
Demographic change is one of the key challenges the EU has to address. Europe is ageing. People aged 50+ represent already 37% of the European population, i.e. 190 million citizens. Eurostat i population projections foresee that the number of people aged over 60 will increase by about two million persons per annum in the coming decades, while the working age population, as a result of lower fertility rates among post baby boom generations, will start to shrink. Thereby the number of very old persons, 80 years and older, who are most likely in need of care, will increase. At the same time fewer young people will be available to provide informal and formal support and care. Therefore, today’s opportunity is to find sustainable solutions supporting active and healthy ageing to close the gap between care demand and supply.
Many innovative solutions supporting active and healthy ageing have been developed as pilots across the EU, but they often remain isolated and do not get scaled up. This means that their impact on addressing challenges of demographic change in Europe is limited. The aim of the AFE-INNOVNET Thematic Network, funded by the European Commission (DG CNECT) and enshrined in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, is to set up a large EU wide community of local and regional authorities and other relevant stakeholders across the EU who want to work together to find smart and innovative evidence-based solutions to develop age-friendly environments across the EU.
This network is based on a strong consortium of 29 partners, 13 cities and 6 regions, and is coordinated by AGE Platform Europe. It already gathers more than 300 stakeholders, among them 70 regions and cities.
In order to give long-term sustainability to the AFE-INNOVNET Thematic Network, we are setting up a Covenant on Demographic Change: a political and technical framework bringing together in a formal and long-term structure all European local, regional and national authorities - and other stakeholders such as civil society organisation, research centres and industries - who commit to cooperate and implement evidence-based solutions to support active and healthy ageing as a comprehensive answer to Europe’s demographic challenge.
The official launch of the Covenant will take place on 7 December during a high level event hosted by the Committee of the Regions, with the support of the European Commission and the participation of the World Health Organisation. The launch will be followed by a two-day technical workshop (8-9 December) for policy-makers where the developped tools will be discussed and the sharing of experience will be favoured. Interpretation will be available during the three days (see details in the draft programme).