Brussels, 28 January 2021

FAFCE continues its Dialogues on demographic challenges: the guest of this third dialogue was the European Commission Vice-President in charge of Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica. On the very day of the publication by the European Commission of the Green Paper on Ageing, the Webinar specifically focused on “Intergenerational Fairness and Demographic Challenges”.

Vice-President Suica stressed how the ageing of our communities has an impact on many sectors, from pension system to labour market, long-term care, loneliness and social isolation. In order to address these challenges, the “Green Paper on Ageing” introduced a life-cycle approach to the issue of ageing, starting from early childhood up to old age, in which “families are the key”, as Ms Suica stressed: “In the formative years, families are the ones to show the way to their youngest members and live as an example of an active, full and health life. We must support the family where and when we can. I want to be clear on an important point: the Commission fully respects the national competences and national situations and cultures of all Member States.”

FAFCE President, Vincenzo Bassi, warmly thanked the Vice-President for her work and recalled that “families are often left out of the discussions because they do not go on strikes- they do not give up on their functions and responsibility”. He added that ageing is first “a family issue”, where one of the real problems is “not that people live longer, but that families cannot have as many children as they want”. He reiterated his call for public institutions to recognise the family as a resource of stable union worth investing. He also presented the FAFCE-COMECE Reflection Paper on “The Elderly and the Future of Europe“, which was sent to the European Commission as a contribution to the debate.

The dialogue was enriched by many questions on maternity, demography, family-friendly policies and on the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe. With regards to maternity, Vice-President Suica stated that “from my personal experience, motherhood is definitely one of the most beautiful journey of all.”

FAFCE will continue in the upcoming months its dialogue with all the European institutions and leaders on how to strengthen our communities after the pandemic, concretely facing the demographic challenges. As stressed by Vice-President Suica, the Green Paper “only means the start of a dialogue”, especially in the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe, planned to be launched this year under the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Watch the Webinar:

Watch other FAFCE Dialogues:

Learn more about the work of FAFCE on demography: