Following the fringe meeting in Antwerp we wrote a letter to the Chairs of the European Green Party as well as its Secretary General. The contents of the letter is self-evident – we remind this Party of young that the elderly also matter. At least they are crucial for the success of Green Parties, in EU Parliament elections and also in national elections.
ENGS
EUROPEAN NETWORK OF GREEN SENIORS
Monica Frassoni and Reinhard Bütikofer, Chairpersons of the EGP
Mar Garcia, Secretary General of the EGP
THE ROLE OF ELDERLY IN FORTHCOMING EU (AND OTHER) ELECTIONS
Dear Chairs and dear Secretary General,
During the latest EGP Council meeting, 19 May 2018 in Antwerpen, the European Network of Green Seniors (ENGS) arranged a fringe meeting under title ”How to inspire more elderly to vote Green in the EU elections”. Frank Hauser, our Secretary General, presented the situation in certain Member States in most recent European elections. The presentation as well as the notes on the discussion after that can be found from ENGS site http://www.greenseniors.eu/.
The situation in all Member States seems to be similar: the young vote more eagerly for the Greens, while the elderly seem to choose other Parties. And this is not enough: in almost all Member States the population is ageing, and the demographic trend continues in the future. These trends reinforce each other and together they are dangerous for the Green movement.
We urge that this development will be taken seriously. This means that in addition to the young EGP as well as the Green Parties in all Member States should address also the seniors and stress issues important for them. There are plenty of them, and main part of them was also mentioned in the seminar mentioned above. We list these subjects here:
− sufficient pensions,
− economy, in particular old age poverty,
− accommodation and neighbourhood,
− mobility,
− discrimination of the elderly (as early as from 45 – 50 years) in the job market,
− passing of experience – life-long learning,
− voluntary work,
− access to health care – at home, nursing home or hospital?
− assistance to elderly migrants,
− generation policy empowered by both young and old.
If needed, ENGS would be happy to help EGP in these endeavours.
With best regards
Stockholm 28 July 2018
Vivianne Gunnarsson
Vice chair of the ENGS vivianne.gunnarsson@sll.se +46 70 3520355
Frank Hauser
Secretary General of the ENGS hauser@hauserfrank.de +49 221 56933526
