News from Members: ATDAL Over 40 celebrates its 10th Anniversary

On Saturday 5 May ATDAL Over 40 celebrates its 10th Anniversary in Rome (2002 – 2012). Please find below the special announcement and more information (in English) on the organisation.

• To represent senior workers (aged 40 to 65) faced with hurdles that prevent them from to re-entering the job market, and to address the consequences that such situations can bring about (family crises, social downsides, depression-related illnesses, etc.);
• To lobby for legislative solutions in the field of job regulation, aimed at protecting senior workers forced out of the job market while still far from retirement age;
• To lobby for legislative solutions aimed at: making it easier for the aforementioned workers to reach the right to retire, a use of State and local welfare instruments in their favour, and overcoming obstacles that arise from outdated laws which “out-of-touch” with the real situation of the Italian economy and society;
• To demonstrate and enhance the professional skills and expertise of senior workers;
• To support and ease in any possible way the re-hiring of unemployed senior people;
• To promote “networking” among Association members, so that new independent enterprises may be set up.

Last Updated on Thursday, 03 May 2012 11:19

Written declaration on the EY2012: list of signatories

Together with the European Parliament Intergroup Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity, AGE prepared a Written declaration on the European Year for Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity calling for MEPs to support the objectives of the European Year 2012 for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations through specific initiatives that would support the creation of an age-friendly European Union by 2020:

• A Covenant of Mayors on demographic change to gather and support local and regional public authorities to promote an Age-Friendly EU
• An EU Age-Friendly Environments Network to exchange experience and good practice
• National action plans on active and healthy ageing to facilitate the involvement of a wide range of actors in the above mentioned Network

Unfortunately, despite an active campaign run by AGE and the strong MEP support, the EY2012 coalition and the Intergroup, the Written Declaration did not collected the required number of signatures within the deadline (15 March) for this declaration to be adopted by the European Parliament. Although we are disappointed that the Parliament did not take this opportunity to support the EY2012 objectives, we will disseminate and use the list of signatories to thank all MEPs who have signed the Declaration and inform older citizens across the EU about the supporters they have within the European Parliament.

We also would like to thank our members and partners who contributed so much effort to encourage MEPs to sign the written declaration and we hope that our collective action will help raise awareness of our campaign among MEPs and future EP elections candidates.

The final list of signatories of the EY2012 Written Declaration is available here

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 April 2012 11:14

EP Written Declaration for an age-friendly EU - call for signatures

Together with the European Parliament Intergroup Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity, AGE has prepared a Written declaration on the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations and calls for MEPs to sign it in order to support the objectives of the European Year 2012 for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations and the creation of an age-friendly European Union through the launch of three initiatives:

• An EU Age-Friendly Environment Network to exchange experience and good practice
• National action plans on active and healthy ageing to facilitate the involvement of a wide range of actors in the above mentioned Network
• A Covenant of Mayors on demographic change to gather and support local and regional public authorities to promote an Age-Friendly EU

The deadline for signing this declaration is 15 March. 176 MEPs have already signed the declaration so far, but we still need about 200 signatures for the text to be adopted within the European Parliament. We therefore welcome your support in contacting your MEPs and encourage them to sign this declaration.

MEPs can sign the written declaration during the plenary sessions in Strasbourg and during the mini-plenary in Brussels in front of the Chambers. The declaration can also be signed in Brussels in the room PHS 02 A030.

Click here to access AGE's call for signature

Last Updated on Thursday, 01 March 2012 17:17

AGE - CSR Europe - Commission seminar on “Towards an age-friendly European Union"

On 9 December 2011 AGE co-hosted, together with CSR Europe and the European Commission, a seminar on “Towards an age-friendly European Union through Enterprise 2020 Active Ageing in Employment, Products & Services”. This kick-off event for the Collaborative project on promoting the business case for active ageing marks the beginning of a series of related discussions and activities during EY2012.

The event brought together companies and older people’s representatives to propose a number of solutions to improve employment and employability for older workers and to suggest ideas for innovation in products and services used by older people. For AGE, a particular highlight of the event was the contribution made by our 4 ‘active agers’ - Nicole Legrain, Louise Richardson, Markku Jaaskelainen and David Sinclair - in 4 working groups on active ageing in employment and active ageing in products and services who provided personal testimonies on the challenges they have encountered, as older people, which provoked the business representatives to react and the working group participants to exchange to gather possible solutions.

These proposed solutions included:

Employment: extending working life, bringing active ageing into employment, developing a programme to highlight the value of active agers as volunteers, job shares between older and younger workers to build skills capacity through mentoring and supporting, creating a flexibility plan to allow the active ager to plan their expectations of working life, and empowering older workers to expanding their competences outside of work. 

Goods and services: increased choice for older people, no age discrimination in products/services, taking into account specificities in terms of packaging/size of products, accessibility of ICT, building an age simulator to give people a feel of what it is like to become old (to promote the creation of good ideas for older people), and a ‘doc advisor’ (equivalent to a trip advisor) which would rate doctors services (and promote better interaction between patients and doctors).

Further key areas of discussion included: overlap of the needs of the 50+ with the disabled population, the importance of age friendliness, the issue of mandatory retirement age, and segmentation of consumer goods for people aged above 55. It was concluded that there is a vital need to work together to raise awareness of the issues surrounding demographic change among companies. A full seminar report is available here.

For more details, please contact Rachel Buchanan, Policy Officer for non-discrimination, employment, volunteering and LLL at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 February 2012 14:41