Over the last 50 years, our life expectancy at birth has increased by 10 years. This is quite significant, European Commissioner for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica said.
According to the Commissioner, that means that we have to work for longer if we want our pension and social welfare systems to remain tenable.
The EC says on its website that this Green Paper discusses those topics and raise questions.
"It frames the debate on ageing by setting out the speed and scale of the demographic changes in our society. It also highlights the impact these developments have across our policies and the questions we need to ask ourselves in response."
This covers everything from promoting healthy lifestyles and lifelong learning to strengthening health and care systems to cater for an older population.
The Commission underlines the need to increase labour market participation.
One in five EU residents aged 65 and over
Today about 20% of the population in the EU is older than 65 and by 2070 their portion of the population could rise to 30%. The share of citizens above 80 could double and by 2070 it could amount to 13%. Similarly, in the EU-27, the EC expects the number of people that may need long-term care to increase to 23.6 million in 2030 and 30.5 million in 2050.
Šuica said that legal migration could be a long term solution for the ageing population.
She said that two initiatives connected with the Green Paper are currently being worked on.
“One is the long-term strategy on rural areas that can certainly be applied to Sisak-Moslavina County, and the other is the strategy on the rights of the child and children's guarantees," said Šuica.