1.3.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 99/143 Wednesday 7 July 2021
importance of creating paid employment opportunities for people who have already reached the statutory retirement age and wish to remain or get active, not only with a view to generating additional income, but also as a means to tackle social exclusion; encourages, moreover, incentives for volunteering and mentoring in order to boost knowledge transfer between generations; underlines that such measures and activities must not be at the expense of young jobseekers or the long-term unemployed;
77.
Calls on the Commission to adopt an EU strategy on carers; stresses that investment in care services is essential as it will not only increase women’s employment rates, providing job opportunities in the formal economy for previously informal carers and promoting a work-life balance for women, but also improve the living conditions of older people through investment in long-term care facilities, measures to improve mental health and combat isolation, and measures to prevent and combat violence against older women, as well as investing in people’s health and education, to ensure that they stay active and in good health as they grow older; calls on the Member States to adopt a set of indicators for the access to and sustainability of care systems for older people, as well as a common quality framework for older people’s care services; stresses the importance of ensuring that care for older people remains a national competence;
78.
Calls on the Member States to devote greater attention to older people, who are particularly vulnerable to viral infections, including COVID-19; calls on the Commission and the Member States to combat the isolation, neglect and social exclusion experienced by older people during the COVID-19 pandemic by promoting awareness-raising campaigns, conducting research, facilitating exchanges of views, and combining EU structural and investment funds; calls on the Member States, furthermore, to ensure the application of patient rights in cross-border healthcare as well as the availability of and access to safe and affordable medicines; stresses that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for more solidarity from the EU; calls on the Commission to devise and adopt an EU charter for the rights of older people on the basis of Article 25 of the Charter;
79.
Recognises the prominent role that cohesion policy and the CAP could play in promoting and boosting the employability and inclusion of women in rural and remote areas faced with demographic issues; calls on the Member States to make better use of the relevant funds to that end;
80.
Calls on the Member States to use REACT-EU funds to tackle demographic change (54);
81.
Highlights that new technologies and innovative methods could prove to be useful to reduce the costs of services of general interest, while retaining the standard of living and quality of services in remote and sparsely populated areas; encourages the Member States and the relevant regional and local authorities to invest in unconventional and innovative measures designed to provide essential services for the population and create a suitable environment to attract people to return and reverse depopulation;
82.
Calls on the Member States to enhance their exchange of best practices on the creation of suitable demographic policies and initiatives to harness the possibilities of and address the challenges posed by the EU’s ageing population;
83.
Recalls the specific nature of family farming, which blends agricultural activity and family life, with older farmers remaining active beyond the age of retirement;
84.
Recognises the potential of older people, including farmers, to become the driving force of a vibrant silver economy in rural areas based on social innovation, inclusive rural communities and a healthier living environment; calls on the Commission to carefully study this potential when building its long-term vision for rural areas and active ageing;
85.
Calls on public institutions to promote the creation of a special protection system that takes account of the specific nature of unemployment affecting agricultural workers, owing to the very temporary nature of agricultural seasonal work; points out that this could provide greater security for those who choose to work in agriculture;
(54)
COM(2020)0241, p. 20.