Brussels, 12 March 2025
Last week, on the 3rd of March, FAFCE participated in the 10th European Congress of Local Governments, held in Mikołajki, Poland.
Maria Waszkiewicz, Project Manager, represented FAFCE in the panel „It’s demography, stupid”, moderated by Gabriela Masztafiak, Author, Above the Horizon, that discussed the importance of tackling the demographic changes from different perspectives. It was a great opportunity to speak about the need of re-establishing the intergenerational balance in Europe, by “putting the family at the centre of long-term public policies in Europe”.
Mateusz Lakomy, Demography Expert, Author of “Demography is Future”, explained which indicators and time horizons should be used to describe the demographic changes that will affect us in the future in the most authoritative and reliable way.
Barbara Socha, President of the Generation Institute Foundation, former Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, gave an insight on the demographic condition of Polish society and measures that were already and should be introduced in Poland to address them. She also stressed the importance of ensuring flexible working arrangement for parents, highlighting that many mothers would like to return to the labour market if they could reduce their working hours.
The economic competitiveness of the state was addressed by Paweł Jaroszek, Member of the Management Board of ZUS (Social Insurance Institution). He explained the impact of the decline in the number of people of working age and an ageing population on the projected deficit in the Social Security.
FAFCE brought the attention to the current challenges that European young couples and families are facing and highlighted the need to act together by introducing long term measures and adopting a cross-policy approach in order to “create conditions that allow families to thrive.” FAFCE also reminded that “families should be considered investment, not a cost“ and that they are indeed the solution to Europe’s demographic winter.
FAFCE would like to warmly thank the Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies for the opportunity to bring the voice of European families to this insightful discussion and appreciates the efforts to put the topic of demography high on the political agenda.
Read more on FAFCE work on demography:
European Day of Demography: Generational Issues: On the Past and Future of Demography
