Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 10 September 2015 - Strasbourg

Assessment of the 2012 European Year for active ageing and solidarity between generations (A8-0241/2015 - Eduard Kukan)

  Marian Harkin (ALDE). – Mr President, I voted in favour of this report on active ageing and solidarity between the generations. Active ageing refers to many things: to health, anti-discrimination, access to adult education, transport, long-term care, also to the burden on family carers, and to employment and pensions.

But this report is not just about active ageing. It is also about solidarity between the generations. We sent a very strong signal from this Parliament when we called on the Commission to assess the feasibility and added value of a new EU financial instrument to provide a minimum income for all EU citizens living below the poverty line. While I fully accept that minimum income is a Member State competence, nonetheless, if there is added value to an EU instrument, then at least Parliament needs to know.

Finally, we also referred to the fact that we deplore a situation where people’s patterns of employment are becoming more insecure. While this affects all citizens, it particularly affects young people.