Features and Challenges of Population Ageing: The European Perspective

It also discusses what public policy responses are required to deal with the challenges posed. The main focus would be on Europe as a region facing these challenges and how individual countries as well as the EU and the UNECE could steer strategies to deal with them.

Two messages would summarize the contents of this Policy Brief:

Firstly, the population ageing phenomenon could be considered a hazard or it could offer new opportunities for our societies depending upon how well we prepare for it. If prepared well and much in advance, this would actually become an opportunity to develop further with a greater extent of social cohesion across generations.

Secondly, it is not just public policies that need to be reformed to account for population ageing issues – in fact the private sector and the civil society as well as the individuals concerned will all be key factors in adapting to the new situation and in coming up with innovations to meet effectively the challenges that our ageing societies will be facing in the future.