Commission accused of failing to help elderly

Date: 08/04/1999

By Simon Coss

ALL efforts to develop EU policies to help the elderly have effectively been abandoned by the European Commission, according to groups representing some 10 million retired people.

The European Federation of Retired and Elderly Persons (FERPA) claims the Commission has "forsaken any attempt" to frame policies for the elderly or to follow up on recommendations made by EU governments and the European Parliament during the 1993 European Year of Older People.

FERPA also claims that, although Acting Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn promised in 1994 to consult its representatives regularly, in practice the organisation has been "completely sidelined".

Flynn's aides hotly dispute FERPA's claims and insist the Commission has done everything it can to pursue initiatives for the elderly in very difficult political circumstances.

Following a ruling by the European Court of Justice last June, the Commission was obliged to suspend funding for a wide variety of programmes, including several schemes targeted at older people.

While the institution managed to free up most of the blocked money fairly rapidly, it was unable to do so in the case of the programmes for the elderly.

But officials point out that once the Amsterdam Treaty comes into force next month, the Commission will have wider powers to propose initiatives for older people. They say work will begin on at least two such projects as soon as a new batch of Commissioners has been appointed to replace the current caretaker team.

" I think it is frankly a bit premature of FERPA to say that the Commission has not done anything for the elderly. Our hands have been tied up until now," said one.

But FERPA is so angry at the Commission's apparent lack of interest in the elderly that it is refusing to support Flynn's plans for a forum, entitled "A Society for All Ages", to mark this year's United Nations-backed International Year of Older People.

" FERPA will not lend its name to a face-saving declaration or pseudo-measure which gives older people the false impression that Europe intends framing a policy for them," said the organisation, which is planning a Europe-wide day of action next Thursday (15 April) to highlight its concerns.

Report from the European Federation of Retired and Elderly Persons (FERPA).