On the 27th January 2011, the Intergroup on Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity organised, together with AGE Platform Europe, a Debate on the European Innovation Patrnership on Active and healthy ageing in the European Parliament. This debate took place one day before the end of the consultation launched by the EC, to which AGE sent its answer. Mr. Van Nistelrooij, MEP and co-chair of the Intergroup, hosted and chaired the meeting. Very supportive of the Partnership, he said it should be complementary to the European Year 2012 on Active Ageing. “To do it better, to do it together”, he added.
Robert Madelin from DG INFSO opened the debate with the presentation of the initiative and insisted on the word ‘Partnership’ and that it should “meet the needs of society of citizens”. “This partnership is a triple win”, he said, “sustainable healthcare systems, improving healthy ageing and opening new business opportunities”. A high variety of stakeholders was represented (EPHA, AIM, EPSU and Intel). The fight against health inequalities, the need to improve health prevention and the training of caregivers, to cover broader issues such as accessibility (transport, housing) and affordability were raised by the different stakeholders. Intel added that there was a need to better inform the end-users and to scale up the use of the innovations.
The three EU institutions (DG INFSO, DG SANCO, the Hungarian Presidency) and the Committee of the Regions showed a great support to the EC’s initiative. Maria Iglesia Gomez from DG SANCO presented the preliminary results of the consultation, based on the 280 they received. The lack of involvement of end users (both consumers/patients and caregivers), the lack of access to funding opportunities, the scattered evidence of the benefits of innovation for end-users, were some main barriers she identified.
AGE presented a summary of its answer to the consultation. “The EIP AHA should seek to promote a holistic vision of active and healthy ageing as being the process of optimising opportunities for physical, social and mental health to enable older people to take an active part in society without discrimination and to enjoy an independent and good quality of life.” said Anne-Sophie Parent, AGE Secretary General.
“The European Year 2012 on Active Ageing (EY 2012) shares the same objective as the EIP AHA: it will seek to engage a wide range of stakeholders (public authorities, the business sector, social actors, civil society organisations) to commit to support active ageing. The EY 2012 and the EIP AHA will play very complementary roles: while the objectives of the EY 2012 are to get all relevant stakeholders to take a political commitment to act, the EIP AHA should provide the means and resources to translate these commitments into reality in a coherent and sustainable way. These two EU processes should be mutually reinforcing to avoid a waste of energies and resources.“ she added.
A steering group on the Partnership will be created by the European Commission in February/March and will define a roadmap to follow. Then, the Council and the European Parliament will formally endorse the partnership. This partnership should enable more transversality in EC’s work with the use of a broad range of existing initiatives towards the same objective.
The presentation of the preliminary results given by Ms. Iglesia Gomez (DG SANCO) is available here.
The answer of EPSU (European Federation of Public Services Unions) to the consultation is available here.
For more information, please send a mail to Maude Luherne, EP liaison officer, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 15:40
