- 2025-09-23 “And the Demography toolbox, adopted in October 2023, is there to provide a framework of different instruments, policies, funds that could be mobilised to support Member States in tackling but also reaping the benefits of demographic change. The demographic toolbox looks at four different areas of interventions uh, starting with reconciling family aspirations and paid work, then supporting and empowering children and younger Generations. Empowering older generations and sustaining their welfare. And last but not least, tackling labour shortages, including by. Um, legal migration. Uh, we are in a stage where we very much focus on the implementation of the demography toolbox. But at the same time, many of the initiatives that are, um, that have been adopted under the new commission or are in the planning all have a very, yeah, direct relevance and contribution to addressing these challenges. Union of skills, adopted earlier in March this year, aims to contribute to upskilling, reskilling, uh, of people of all ages, ages, uh, supporting intergenerational learning and attracting talent from abroad, while also encouraging intra-eu mobility. We. As a follow up to this, we are working on an initiative to support Recognition of portability and portability of skills across barriers, which again will help address some of the demographic challenges, especially in regions that are facing demographic decline. We are working with full engines to prepare the Quality Jobs roadmap to be adopted before the end of this year.”
Legal migration · Youth employment & training · EU competences on demographic policy
- 2025-09-23 “Um, good afternoon, chair, and very happy to be here and welcoming this initiative for a hearing focusing specifically on demographic challenge, which also within the Commission, we very much acknowledge as being one of the most prominent challenges of our societies and economies that we are facing today, although it has started already some decades earlier. In addition, let's say to the challenges perspective, we also want to highlight that demographic change.”
EU strategy on population growth · EU policy on aging workforce and pensions · EU competences on demographic policy
- 2025-09-23 “And again, we see that quality jobs are at the centre of managing in a successful way. Demographic, but also digital and green transitions. Uh, with this quality jobs roadmap, we aim to promote an age diverse workforce, but also to combat age stereotypes and discrimination at the workplace. In parallel, we are working towards the first EU anti-poverty strategy, which again, we aim to, um, uh, take a life cycle perspective and also very much, uh, uh, embed in it the demographic, uh, challenges, uh, an important element that comes from, uh, input from stakeholders with regards to the anti-poverty strategy is, of course, the access to services and the activation of groups underrepresented on the labour market at the same time as it has been announced. Also last week in the state of the Union, um, uh, speech of our president, uh, we are called to come up with a reinforced child guarantee precisely in order to ensure that our children can strive and lead a good life from early ages on, and to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. I would also like to mention quickly that we are continuing, uh, with supporting member states and all stakeholders. Actually, with implementation of the European care strategies and the two Council recommendations on access to long term care and targets on early childhood education and care. And at the same time, we are reflecting on how to take further steps towards ensuring a more coherent framework for addressing long term care workforce challenges.”
Public and private sectors role in healthcare services · Child poverty policy · EU policy on aging workforce and pensions
- 2025-09-23 “Yes. It also brings opportunities if we manage it effectively. Uh, very much. I'm very much echoing what has been said in the introduction that in order to address these challenges, we need to create an environment that enables people of all ages to fulfil their aspirations and life choices. We need to have in place policies at European and national level, local, regional levels that enable people to contribute to society and economy at all stages in life. This means policies that improve employability throughout the life course by starting early, investing in the Education and care of our children from early ages by promoting healthy lifestyles, skills development in a life course perspective and access to care services also across all different stages in life. We also need policies that support flexible working arrangements and reasonable accommodation at work. Tapping on the talent of people that are currently outside the labour market, but also looking at, let's say, adjustment to social protection systems and designing incentives to work later in life that are embedded in pension systems, and designing also flexible retirement pathways. If we look at the policy responses at European level, maybe I would just like to highlight a couple of those. Um, uh, as has been mentioned, demography really is not one single policy area. It cuts across all areas of societies and policies, and it means we need to mobilise across all levels of and services of the Commission. So since 2019, there is a dedicated member of the college whose mandate is to tackle demographic challenges.”
EU competences on social policies · EU policy on aging workforce and pensions · EU competences on demographic policy
- 2025-09-23 “Um, maybe I will, uh, also point out to a couple of very important analytical tools that we have at European level, precisely to put into evidence the impact of demographic change on social protection system. The three annual pension adequacy and ageing reports that analyse country by country, but also, in a European perspective, the impact of ageing population on pension but also on overall public budgets And we also look from the lens of the adequacy on how this may impact the living standards of older people for the next edition. With the Social Protection Committee, we got the mandate to provide an integrated analysis of social protection in old age, where we will look at both pensions and long term care and other related, um, policies. And, um, of course, all this, uh, will be embedded in our future, uh, social pillar action plan, uh, as we come back quite renewed with lots of motivation from the Porto summit last week. And my last words will be also to remind everyone that the commission is working intensively towards the adoption of, uh, intergenerational fairness strategy. That, of course, is an essential element to address, um, Demographic challenge in the long term perspective, and to ensure cohesion and fairness in all the forms, whether social, territorial, environmental, economic for all generations now and in the future. Thank you so much.”
EU competences on social policies · EU strategy on population growth · EU policy on aging workforce and pensions
- 2025-09-23 “We are looking very closely to other active labour market inclusion policies, especially for bringing those furthest away from the labour market, access to care services to empower more and let's say, better quality women labour market participation. We are looking at, um, skills development and gender equality, just to name a few. And maybe my last point is with regards to the key takeaway from this discussion, we have seen that we have touched upon so many different policy areas. We have touched upon, uh, child and family policies, work life balance policies, quality jobs, skills in a lifelong learning perspective, access to services, territorial dimension, gender equality, housing migration. So it very much illustrates that it's important that we have this comprehensive overarching approach, and we put all our policies together to tackle demographic challenge. But also that demographic challenge, as per se, needs to be mainstreamed across all the policy fields. And um, in my earlier intervention, I have already mentioned how we are actually working or already adopted a number of initiatives that deal with many of these policy areas that I enumerated. And we are looking forward, of course, continuing working closely with the European Parliament in this important debate.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · Youth employment & training · EU competences on demographic policy
- 2025-09-23 “Thank you very much. I would like to start by addressing one of the questions raised with regards to the funding support, to tackling demographic challenge, and just confirm that as it currently does, but also in our proposals for the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the European Social Fund Plus will continue to play a central role in addressing the social dimension of demographic challenge. It will continue as it already does now to support the skills development at all stages in life, boosting employment, fostering social inclusion and providing support to vulnerable age groups. At the same time, also regional European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Funds in general within their national envelopes will provide opportunities for Member States to plan concrete reforms, investments that help tackle territorial disparities and improve access to services, especially in regions that are most affected by demographic decline. I would also like to highlight that in the Commission proposals for proposals for the next MFF, we have inserted as a specific objective for the national and regional partnership plans tackling demographic challenge. So I think this provides a good basis for the Member States to plan the required measures. I would also like to confirm that within the context of the semester, we are very closely monitoring many of the policy areas that have been highlighted in the dimension in the discussion.”
European Semester (social dimension) · Cohesion and rural funding · EU competences on demographic policy