Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-11-Speech-4-040"
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"en.20020411.3.4-040"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, thank you for your contributions. In actual fact, this is not perhaps the best time for this discussion. It would have been better either to have adopted a resolution before the assembly on ageing that is taking place right now under the auspices of the UN and so have been able to influence it, or else perhaps to have adopted a resolution subsequently once we had been able to assess the assembly’s conclusions. However, it is encouraging that the European Parliament is so unified in its view of ageing.
All too often, we see ageing as a problem. I, for my part, cannot see it as a problem that people live longer and are more and more healthy at ever more advanced ages. Rather, it is very encouraging and an asset to our societies. However, we in the Member States of the EU are very bad at making use of the skills possessed by the older portion of the population, particularly in the world of work.
In the majority of the Member States, the formal pensionable age is approximately 65 while the actual pensionable age is very much lower. People are thrown out of work for a variety of reasons. It is the result of discrimination against older people, something which does in actual fact occur and must be got to grips with, as to some extent it has been. It is also the result of poor working environments that cause people to become exhausted before their time. Last but not least, it has to do with the fact that, in our knowledge-based society where it is increasingly important to develop one’s skills and engage in lifelong learning, older people are not given the opportunity to do just that. If they were to be given that opportunity, there would also be a very much greater opportunity to make use of their skills.
It is important that we retain the European social model, that is to say a social security system with high-quality, developed health care and medical services. This is crucial, especially for the most elderly people of all who have a great need for health care and medical treatment. In the future, the need will become greater because women, who have previously assumed responsibility for providing a large part of that care, have now entered the labour market and will continue to do so to an ever-greater degree. This demands even more of society in terms of developing resources so that the elderly receive dignified care when they become really old and have greatest need of it.
We must also adopt a global perspective, as the Commission has done. It is important that we monitor developments beyond our borders and try to form a global strategy covering the status of the elderly throughout the world."@en1
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