Concept "Monitor of European Policies on Senior Citizens"

The concept of the "Monitor of European Policies on Senior Citizens"

The idea

All European Member States are facing great challenges in their efforts to cope with demographic change: ageing populations change the fabric of society, the organisation of the economy and the entire field of policy-making. The various Member States of the European Union have adopted a wide range of innovative sociopolitical approaches and initiatives to face demographic change in a positive and forward-looking manner.

The Monitor of Developments in Policies relating to Generational Issues and Senior Citizens launched by the Observatory for Sociopolitical Developments in Europe in 2010 is an instrument with which the Observatory can report regularly – every four months – on trends in eight Member States of the EU that encourage new policies relating to generational and elderly issues, carry out policy reforms and/or present up-to-date information on new aspects of the debate on demographic change.

The method

The Monitor collects and presents information on generational policies and policies for the elderly in Denmark, Finland, France, Austria, Spain, in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. These countries are Member States of the EU that have already attracted attention with innovative policies relating to generational or elderly issues or are currently undertaking reforms in this area.

The findings presented here on the measures taken in these Member States are based on a review of current literature. The research has taken into account both official government sources and media presentations.

It has focused exclusively on issues dealt with and initiatives taken by or on behalf of ministries at the national level in the countries concerned.

When looking for new issues and initiatives at the level of national governments, our research has therefore considered only policy measures, initiatives in the legislative area or programmes

1) that are planned or currently implemented

2) that are currently the subject of public debate

3) that are not restricted to regional authorities (e.g. municipalities, autonomous regions etc.).