At the beginning of February, we will be travelling to Lyon for the EGP Congress. There, the manifesto of the European Greens will be adopted and the candidates elected.
We will have a stand there and just discussed our activities. For the first time, we have a small chapter on ageism in the European Manifesto. That’s great! Of course, we would like to see more and want to bring in an amendment that Christa from Germany is preparing: We want even more age-friendly cities and communities to be created throughout Europe. Age-friendly cities cover everything from barrier-free living, barrier-free transport, shuttles for the last mile, intergenerational meeting places to combat loneliness, accessibility to medical care and the most important thing: participation.
Irmgard from Austria is also working on an amendment on peace and global justice. We also want to write a statement and develop a flyer that we can distribute in Lyon.
And next week we will meet again to talk about our statutes and our name: ENGS (European Network of Green Seniors). We don’t want to be a network with limited rights, that doesn’t fit. Demographic change is here, we older people are a growing group that already makes up around a quarter of the population. The EGP Manifesto states: We believe that policies work best when shaped by the people concerned. And that’s exactly what we want! We want to be the voice of older people and fight for their right to participate. Children and the elderly are often overlooked by society, and we want to change that.
