In October 2023, AGE met the Vice-President of the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament, Mr Malik Azmani of the Dutch VVD. Our Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary-General had an exchange on our EP manifesto, calling for a Europe for all ages, and the intergenerational declaration developed by AGE and the European Youth Forum.

Mr Azmani welcomed that there was a manifesto developed by older persons, as population ageing and the questions that it brings for society are not covered by a policy or roadmap at the moment. He took the example of the Renew Europe Youth manifesto, the process of which could give a template for an older persons’ manifesto.

“Renew Europe wants the EU to invest in people of all age groups in order to advance our union of solidarity between generations. We must take into account the valuable contribution that older people make to our society through their experience and knowledge.”

Malik Azmani
Member of the European Parliament

AGE explained its call for an age equality strategy on EU level, which would exactly respond to this absence of a formulated policy around population ageing. AGE emphasised the need to up the fight against age discrimination, as this dimension is often forgotten, a recent example being the idea of more frequent renewals of drivers’ licences for older persons currently debated in the EU Drivers License Directive. During COVID, we have seen that society seems to accept divisions on the basis of age – the intergenerational declaration has been developed to counter this.

The representatives of Renew Europe thanked for the declaration and the AGE manifesto, which come timely to feed into the ALDE party manifesto, ALDE being the largest party inside the current Renew Europe group.

AGE called for protecting the human rights of persons as they age – not new rights, but preserving their existing rights, and for the next European Parliament to embody this value of solidarity between generations.

Written by
Philippe Seidel Leroy
AGE Policy Manager on Social Protection and European Parliament