Mr President, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, it was with great pleasure that I agreed to be the rapporteur of this major European Parliament resolution which deals with one of the greatest problems of our European Community: the ageing of the population. This issue requires considerable sensitivity on our part, and we must strive to create that intergenerational solidarity which is essential if we are to produce worthwhile, substantial holistic policies and bring about social security and social protection and, most importantly, to ensure that the idea that elderly people are not a burden on society becomes part of the cultural consciousness of society and that they are regarded as a resource: first and foremost a human resource but also a social resource, a cultural resource and, lastly, that it is recognised that the elderly have a great legacy of experience to pass on to future generations. These are the factors that motivated the entire Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and I to develop this resolution and enabled us to approve the result unanimously. I therefore thank all my colleagues for their contributions, including those made at the amendments stage, and also the committee's experts, for these contributions were very valuable for the finalisation of the resolution. The European Union took the problem on board in 1999, the year in which the United Nations proclaimed the International Year of Older Persons. We have now reached the stage of a Commission communication and are here today to vote upon a resolution. This stage is extremely important. We feel that a policy which actively tackles the issue of ageing population, which regards the elderly not as people who are about to die but as people who want and intend to remain alive – alive in their affections, alive in their professional capacities, alive in the will to communicate at all levels not just their feelings but also their professionalism and their experience – is the best way to create and develop new policies, in particular to encourage social cohesion and intergenerational solidarity. Clearly, there are complex issues to deal with: the issue of security, the issue of pensions and also the issue of care of the elderly which we have attempted to tackle, which I have attempted to deal with in this resolution as calmly and effectively as possible. We are all aware that families often have to bear the burden of caring for an elderly person and that this burden often falls upon women who have to bear it alone, moreover without any recognition from the social or employment policies of the Member States. The Member States must therefore make greater efforts: they must unite and tackle this issue together. Above all, they must ensure that the future of the third and fourth ages is guaranteed. The future may consist of a single day, minute or second, but it must be a day, minute, or second which is lived in the knowledge that the life before an elderly person is a whole life, not half a life. An elderly person is a worker who has ceased to work, the elderly are men and women who have reached the point where they are navigating their way through the final stage of their lives and who must be able to do so with the necessary serenity and with the recognition from all of us but, most importantly, the recognition from the world of politics and authorities that they are people. This must not be forgotten. This is the central theme of the resolution, which tackles different aspects of the issue ranging from leisure time to employment. In effect, when we talk of attitude, of learning and therefore of the willingness to be retrained and benefit from life-long training, we must ensure that this is a reality for the elderly as well, for older workers are often excluded from new working procedures and new technologies by technological progress. We therefore need extensive training to be available, non-discrimination in the workplace and non-discrimination during the time after retirement as well, when these workers, these people can enjoy the new wealth and new opportunities provided by all the time now available to them and live more serene lives. This is why we are moving in this direction and, in particular, why we are considering the older and very old people who, sadly, are liable to be affected by physical problems. Indeed, as we are aware, health does not last forever. The Member States must implement different policies to support these people, tackling both the issue of the care necessary and the issue of the reimbursement of expenses, especially for those invalids whose families are, in effect, unable to bear the whole of such a burden in the long term.

Political group: ELDR