INTERREG IVC - Innovation & Environment Regions og Europe Sharing Solutions
2012 - European Year of Active Ageing
The population of Europe is growing older. According to the European Demography Report, the working-age share of the population is expected to shrink continuously from 2012 onwards, while the share of the over-60 generations is going to increase by about two million a year. The process will reach its peak during 2015-2035, when the so-called baby-boom generation will enter retirement. The ageing society is posing a severe challenge to social security systems and the public finances. Healthcare systems and pension funds in particular will come under increasing pressure.
However, this view neglects the significant contributions that older people can make to society. Their knowledge and experience is valuable not only to the economy, but to society as a whole. The European Commission therefore has designated 2012 as the European Year of Active Ageing. This initiative contributes to improved living and working conditions of older people. It aims to create better job opportunities for older people, to help them take an active role in society, and to encourage healthy ageing.
INTERREG IVC actively contributes to reaching these ambitious goals by funding 11 projects and sub-projects (projects developed via calls for proposals in regions participating in mini-programmes. Mini-programmes involve a limited number of partners developing a joint ...) , bringing together 59 actors from 30 European regions to work on successful policies for older people.
CREATOR is a mini-programme tackling the challenges which arise from an ageing society, funding seven sub-projects. Among the issues addressed by these sub-projects are IT-based solutions for supporting elderly people in being active, and spatial planning methods that take into account the special needs of older generations. The sub-project Silhouette, for example, analyses specifically the ICT tools that can be used to overcome barriers for elderly people’s active participation in society. The partners have begun by evaluating the effects of existing ICT tools in supporting seniors before carrying out trials of products and services that could be transferred from one partner to another.
The DART project collects and exchanges good practices on how to address the effects of demographic change. Applying various perspectives, it aims to gain a broad understanding of why and how demographic change and regional decline occurs. The partners have collected a selection of good practices on active ageing from all around Europe. The first four practices in the file - the ‘Abloy Agemaster’ from Northern Karelia (FI), ‘Campus of Generations’ from Brandenburg (DE), ‘JSP – Junior-Senior-Program’ from Saxony (DE) and ‘Social and medical services at home for elderly/dependent people’ from Centru (RO), have been labelled as best practices by the partners.
The ESF6 CIA Capitalisation project brought together eleven partners to capitalise on their experiences from the European Social Fund Article 6 activities. Article 6 of the European Social Fund provides for innovative activities, which can be used for future projects and programmes. As a result (Direct and indirect medium/long term effect of the project activities (e.g. number of regional policy changes, number of integrated energy plans ready for implementation, ...) of this exchange, the Managing Authority of the Bulgarian operational programme (a document developed by EU countries and /or regions and approved by the Commission, which defines their priorities as well as the programming required to achieve ...) has set up two new grant schemes. One promotes lifelong learning, based on the good practice (in the context of the INTERREG IVC programme, a good practice is defined as an initiative (e.g. methodologies, projects, processes, techniques) undertaken in one ...) ‘Creative Approaches to Workforce Ageing’ developed by the East of England region; the second, coming from Western Greece, funds specialised training for people at pre-retirement age. The project video presents good practices from Girona Region in Spain. It includes interviews with people aged 50 and over, explaining the importance of preserving and finding job placements for senior workers.
Furthermore, Silver Academy, a sub-project of the PEOPLE mini-programme, offered several workshops for entrepreneurs aged 50 or older. The workshops were held in Surrey (UK), Andalucía (ES) and Malopolska (PL) and provided the participants with useful training and support on starting their own business and developing their personal skills. The sub-project’s final report and further outputs demonstrate how older people can be major contributors to their regional and local economies.
Demographic change is also in the focus of 5 fourth call projects approved under conditions in December 2011. These include CesR on providing services to the elderly population, TOK-TOC on know-how transfer in enterprise succession, TOURAGE on developing senior tourism in remote regions, DAA on design-led innovations for senior care and active ageing, and INN.O.V.Age on eco-independent living for the elderly. Together, these projects will contribute to promoting active ageing all over Europe.
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