Brussels, 30/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Speaking at the opening of the Regions for Economic Change conference, entitled “Regional policy responses to demographic challenges”, which was attended by the Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Hübner and Commissioner for Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla (see EUROPE 9352), the president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Michel Delebarre, said that to meet the demographic challenge, local authorities had to make effective decisions with the help of the “age proofing toolkit” which provided a comprehensive briefing on the key issues presented by demographic ageing.
“Until now, the issue of the ageing population was thought of, at national level, almost exclusively in terms of how to fund the pensions and social security systems. The demographic dimension of public policies and the influence of these policies on demographics were never seen as priorities. Yet, it is precisely these policies that are being affected,” Mr Delebarre said. To respond to this situation, he said that conditions which encouraged people to have children had to be created in our societies, especially through offering financial incentives, child-minding facilities and changes in working conditions for parents, and at the same time, we had to adapt to the new social reality of an older, more dependent, more fragile population. The issue of territorial cohesion, he went on, must also be interpreted in a different way.
Mr Delebarre opined that elected representatives and regional officials must first have a proper starting diagnosis, adapted to regional and local reality. This was to be done by developing a toolkit devoted to indicators of ageing which would allow all interested authorities to establish their own diagnosis. This toolkit is made up of a series of short brochures, he added. They were handed out during the conference and are available online. After carrying out the diagnosis, local and regional leaders should be able to identify effective policy responses. Given that, in the future, “grey power” would become very effective and the older generation would expect its needs to be taken into account by all levels of government, Mr Delebarre said that better public transport would have to be on offer, town plans would have to be reviewed to create more compact towns, smaller and specially equipped housing would have to be built for those with reduced mobility etc. In short, he went on, “The toolkit could be useful since it provides a sort of thematic aide-mémoire setting out the effects on the economy, land use, vocational training and competence, housing, transport, social inclusion, etc.” We must act at local and regional levels so that we can adapt to demographic change progressively and avoid unnecessary tensions, he concluded. (gb)