Editorial

So in the EU, 2012 is dedicated to Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations.

Convinced of the importance of the issue, COFACE has joined the coalition of NGOs that are going to follow the developments of the year and will have their own input in the activities organized around the theme at European and especially at Member State level.

Indeed, families and their organisations are very clear stakeholders in this field, as they are directly concerned by any changes in retirement age, pension levels, end of career time arrangements, active involvement in civil society associations… In this perspective, EY2012 is a fitting follow-up to EY2011 on volunteering.

As in our societies, people tend to live longer and in good health – a very positive development indeed – it is quite logical that the EU highlights all the advantages of ‘active ageing’ (e.g. remaining active on the labour market is good for the pension schemes), not forgetting either that older citizens represent an attractive population for a series of markets (travel, culture, leisure, sports, education, life-long learning…), at least when considering those who have the financial means to purchase these services…

This is where the EU shows the limits of its approach: there seems to be less interest for those older citizens who do not have the resources to invest in leisure activities etc, and are no longer on the labour market - sometimes have been out of it for many years.

How does the EU involve its older citizens who do not have the opportunity of travelling, playing golf, buying season tickets for concerts, following courses for senior citizens…? Are we not once again catering for the ‘have’s’ and neglecting the ‘have-not’s’? What is the EU doing to reduce the gap between them? Such a Year should be the occasion for a comprehensive approach to the issue.

What’s more, there seems to be somewhat less importance granted to the ‘solidarity between generations’ aspect of the Year. Here also families and their organisations are at the forefront of the issue: by definition, families are at the heart of solidarity between generations.

COFACE therefore regrets the unbalance between the two fields of the EY2012 especially as expressed by the speeches at the recent launching conference in Copenhagen, where most of them were insisting on prolonging life at work…

We wish to insist that more effort and encouragement be spent in the EU and especially in the Member States to take this Year’s opportunity to favour all sorts of projects that bring generations together (grandparents and children, older and younger citizens in a variety of surroundings…). Family organisations around Europe are prepared to present their own initiatives and experiences. Hopefully, there will be strong recognition and support of such activities.

William Lay, Director

The conference provided several remarkable presentations on ageing, but we regret that the event concentrated more on employment and labour market questions, thus lacking the concept of solidarity between generations, poverty.

The European Year starts in a challenging social, economic and political context where NGOs often face growing needs and lacking financial support. To appropriately address age discrimination problems or demographic change, the involvement of civil society organisations has became extremely important. Therefore, COFACE welcomes the commitment of the Cyprus Presidency to focus on the participation of local NGOs and CSOs in social policies towards the implementation of the EU2020 strategy, as one of the priorities of the Cypriot Presidency during the 2nd half of 2012.

See also: www.coface-eu.org/en/News/European-Year-2012



New civil society Alliance for 2013: European Year of Citizens

Following on to the Commission’s proposal to designate 2013 as European Year of Citizens, the European civil society organisations and networks members of the Liaison Group have decided to create a civil society Alliance in order to lobby on MEPs to explicitly broaden the scope of the EY2013 to all aspects of citizenship and raise its budget.

COFACE is member of this Alliance. Aiming at mobilising and coordinating civil society engagement in the activities which will be scheduled during the European Year of Citizens 2013, this Alliance is open to all civil society organisations sharing the same willingness to put citizens at the heart of the European building process and to promote a collective engagement for a common project and the emergence of a European public space.

The European Citizens' Initiative

The European Citizens' Initiative allows 1 million citizens from at least one quarter of the EU Member States to invite the European Commission to bring forward proposals for legal acts in areas where the Commission has the power to do so. The organisers of a citizens' initiative, a citizens' committee composed of at least 7 EU citizens who are resident in at least 7 different Member States, will have 1 year to collect the necessary statements of support. The number of statements of support has to be certified by the competent authorities in the Member States. The Commission will then have 3 months to examine the initiative and decide how to act on it.
In accordance with the Regulation, it will only be possible to launch the first European Citizens' Initiatives from 1 April 2012.



Online safety for children

The ICT Coalition for a Safer Internet for Children and Young People announced on 19 January its guiding principles for the development of products and services to actively enhance the safety of children and young people online.

25 companies from across the information and communications technology sector are signatories to the principles, which aim to ensure that children and young people obtain the greatest benefit from new technologies, while avoiding the challenges and risks which are of concern to people worldwide.

The principles focus on the key areas of: content, parental controls, dealing with abuse/misuse, child sexual abuse content or illegal contact, privacy & control and education & awareness.

These principles differ from other ongoing initiatives because they provide a long term roadmap for safer development and cover all aspects of accessing and using the internet and its services. More details about the ICT Principles and the actions to be taken by Signatories



Priorities of the Danish Presidency 2012

Denmark holds its seventh Presidency of the Council of the European Union from the beginning of 2012. This Trio Presidency consists of Poland, Denmark and Cyprus. The six-month Presidency has to concentrate on several pressing priorities such as jobs and economic growth, budget talks and the current global financial crisis. Though, many Member States’ main concern lies on the effective management of credit crunch and downgrades, COFACE calls upon the Danish Presidency to devote adequate importance on tackling the social impact of the financial crisis.

“The Danish Presidency will invite Member States to discussions on how to respond to the demographic challenges, including how the labour supply may be strengthened by more young people and women entering the labour market, changed family patterns, better reconciliation of work and family life, lifelong learning, breaking the intergenerational inheritance of disadvantage, as well as a greater employment rate for persons who are not in possession of full capacity for work”.

Work Programme of the Danish Presidency ‘Europe at Work'