Article 1 Subject
The year 2012 shall be designated as the ‘European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations’ (‘the European Year’). It shall promote the vitality and the dignity of all.
Article 2 Objectives
The overall objective of the European Year shall be to facilitate the creation of an active ageing culture in Europe based on a society for all ages. Within this framework, the European Year shall encourage and support the efforts of Member States, their regional and local authorities, social partners, civil society and the business community, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to promote active ageing and to do more to mobilise the potential of the rapidly growing population in their late 50s and over. In doing so, it shall foster solidarity and cooperation between generations, taking into account diversity and gender equality. Promoting active ageing means creating better opportunities so that older women and men can play their part in the labour market, combating poverty, particularly that of women, and social exclusion, fostering volunteering and active participation in family life and society and encouraging healthy ageing in dignity. This involves, inter alia, adapting working conditions, combating negative age stereotypes and age discrimination, improving health and safety at work, adapting lifelong learning systems to the needs of an ageing workforce and ensuring that social protection systems are adequate and provide the right incentives. On the basis of the first paragraph, the objectives of the European Year shall be: (a) to raise general awareness of the value of active ageing and its various dimensions and to ensure that it is accorded a prominent position on the political agendas of stakeholders at all levels in order to highlight the useful contribution that older people make to society and the economy, raising the appreciation thereof, to promote active ageing, solidarity between generations and the vitality and the dignity of all people, and to do more to mobilise the potential of older people, regardless of their origin, and to enable them to lead an independent life; (b) to stimulate debate, to exchange information and to develop mutual learning between Member States and stakeholders at all levels in order to promote active ageing policies, to identify and disseminate good practice and to encourage cooperation and synergies; (c) to offer a framework for commitment and concrete action to enable the Union, Member States and stakeholders at all levels, with the involvement of civil society, the social partners and businesses and with particular emphasis on promoting information strategies, to develop innovative solutions, policies and long-term strategies, including comprehensive age-management strategies related to employment and work, through specific activities, and to pursue specific objectives related to active ageing and intergenerational solidarity; (d) to promote activities which will help to combat age discrimination, to overcome age-related stereotypes and to remove barriers, particularly with regard to employability.
Article 3 Content of measures
1. The measures to be taken to achieve the objectives set out in Article 2 shall include the following activities at Union, national, regional or local level: (a) conferences, events and initiatives, with the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, to promote debate, to raise awareness and to encourage the commitment to specific objectives contributing to sustained and lasting impacts; (b) information, promotion and educational campaigns, making use of multimedia; (c) exchange of information, experience and good practice, by using, inter alia, the Open Method of Coordination and networks of stakeholders working to achieve the objectives of the European Year; (d) research and surveys on a Union, national or regional scale, and dissemination of the results, focusing on the economic and social impact of promoting active ageing and of active-ageing-friendly policies. 2. When implementing the activities referred to in paragraph 1, attention shall be paid to involving all generations in the pursuit of the objectives of the European Year, in particular by seeking to develop an inclusive approach and by encouraging the participation of older and younger people in common initiatives. 3. The Commission or Member States may identify other activities as contributing to the objectives of the European Year and may allow the name of the European Year to be used in promoting those activities provided that they contribute to achieving the objectives set out in Article 2. 4. The Commission and Member States shall take into account gender mainstreaming in all their activities in connection with the running of the European Year. 5. The Commission shall take into account the potential of cross-border activities taking place at regional or local level for achieving the objectives set out in Article 2. 6. Efforts shall be made to ensure that all activities of the European Year addressed to the wider public are easily accessible to all, including persons with disabilities.
Article 4 Coordination with Member States
1. Each Member State shall appoint a national coordinator to be responsible for organising its involvement in the European Year and shall inform the Commission of that appointment. 2. The national coordinators shall also see to it that national activities of the European Year are properly coordinated and may also promote and facilitate local and regional activities in this context. The national coordinators shall also foster the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, in the activities of the European Year. 3. By 25 November 2011, Member States are invited to inform the Commission of their work programme, which shall outline details of the national activities planned under the European Year.
Article 5 Participating countries
Participation in the European Year shall be open to: (a) Member States; (b) candidate countries; (c) the countries of the Western Balkans; and (d) European Free Trade Association States that are parties to the European Economic Area Agreement.
Article 6 Coordination at the level of the Union
1. The Commission shall implement the European Year at the level of the Union. 2. The Commission shall convene meetings of the national coordinators for the purpose of coordinating activities of the European Year at the level of the Union and of exchanging information and knowledge, including on possible commitments and their implementation in Member States. 3. The Commission shall facilitate and support the activities of the European Year at national, regional and local level, including by proposing, where appropriate, new pathways and tools for the achievement of the objectives of the European Year and their evaluation. 4. Coordination of the activities of the European Year at the level of the Union shall also be a matter for the existing policy committees and advisory groups. 5. The Commission shall also convene meetings of representatives of European organisations or bodies working in the field of active ageing in order to help it run the European Year. 6. The theme of the European Year shall be made a priority by the Commission in the communication activities of its representations in the Member States and by relevant key Union-level networks receiving support for their running costs from the general budget of the Union in their work programmes. 7. The European Parliament, Member States, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions shall be associated in the activities of the European Year.
Article 7 Financial and non-financial support
1. Activities referred to in Article 3(1) that occur at the level of the Union may give rise to a procurement contract or the award of grants financed from the general budget of the Union. 2. Where appropriate, programmes and policies in fields which contribute to the promotion of active ageing, such as employment, social affairs and equal opportunities, education and culture, health, research, the information society, regional policy and transport policy may support the European Year, in accordance with the applicable rules and within their existing possibilities for priority setting. 3. Non-financial support may be granted by the Union for activities undertaken by public and private organisations in accordance with Article 3(3).
Article 8 Budget
1. The financial envelope for the implementation, at the level of the Union, of this Decision, in particular in respect of the activities set out in Article 3(1), for the period from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012, shall be EUR 5 000 000. 2. Annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial framework.
Article 9 Consistency
The Commission - together with Member States - shall ensure that the measures provided for in this Decision are consistent with any other Union, national and regional schemes and initiatives that help attain the objectives of the European Year.
Article 10 International cooperation
For the purpose of the European Year, the Commission may cooperate with relevant international organisations, in particular with the United Nations and the Council of Europe, while ensuring the visibility of the Union’s efforts to promote active ageing.
Article 11 Evaluation
1. By 30 June 2014, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions containing an overall assessment of the initiatives provided for in this Decision with details of implementation and results to serve as a basis for future Union policies, measures and actions in this field. 2. The report referred to in paragraph 1 shall also provide information on how gender equality has been mainstreamed in the activities of the European Year and how the accessibility of those activities for persons with disabilities has been ensured. 3. The report referred to in paragraph 1 shall also highlight how the European Year has produced lasting effects for the promotion of active ageing across the Union.
Article 12 Entry into force
This Decision shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
Article 13 Addressees
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.