High level policy experts look into the future of Europe and discuss next steps

Demography not only drives Europe's future, it can also decide over success or failure of policies. 

Today the FutuRes Policy Lab hosted a meeting of European high level policy experts. The participants discussed policy recommendations for preparing the care and labour markets for the demographic transition.

15 high level policy specialists contributed. The heads of department, team leaders and other high level decision makers came from 9 countries in Europe, as well as the EU level. The meeting participants had agreed to discuss policy recommendations based on a set of future scenarios.

The main question was: Can Europe get through the current demographic transition without losing its competitiveness or compromising the wellbeing of its people? Many of the participants indicated that the answer depends on whether or not member states are successful in setting into motion broad, well-planned and visionary long-term investments.

The discussion focused on skill training, information access and education. Topics broached today included:

• Policies to achieve better access to labour markets for certain groups, such as older people, migrants and people with lower digital skills
• Best practices of skill training for caregivers
• Experiences with digital and democratic literacy in early childhood education and how to apply them to prevent skill segregation

A publication with some recommendations will follow in the new year. Follow or get in touch to stay informed.

We would like to thank all participants for joining us. FutuRes strives to connect European demographic expertise in science and policy sectors. We are happy and honoured to be providing a space for this dialogue.

We would like to give special thanks to the team of VDI/VDE Innovation & Technik in Berlin, who moderated the meeting and provided the scenarios; and to the team at Population Europe for the coordination and preparation.