Is it really a year since the last ELDR Congress in Barcelona? The answer, it seems, is yes, so 'Liberal Bureaucracy' is pleased to bring to a rather wider audience than might otherwise be the case, a preview of the forthcoming debates.
It is traditional on these occasions to start with the theme resolution, a generally weighty tome, running to pages, written in a Euro-variant of English, and this year is no exception. Indeed, so much so, that the report will come in several parts. Bear with me...
Liberal Responses to the Challenges of Demographic Change
DRAFT theme resolution of the ELDR Party Congress, 14-15th October 2010, Helsinki, Finland
The ageing of populations sets one of the biggest challenges for the 21st century. Increased life expectancy is one of the greatest successes of the 20th century: who would not prefer a longer life? Older people provide Europe with a major social, economic and political resource and contribute a great deal to society. At the same time, European and global populations are ageing, which raises questions about health and social care; how to ensure sustainable economic growth; and the type of social protection systems that we expect and can maintain.
Demographic change has not happened overnight. However, without policies to address these issues now, some EU countries will discover in five to ten years time that our economies are less productive; our health care systems are unbalanced with the demands for health care in later life and reductions in the number of family carers; and state pensions systems are in crisis. Europe’s Liberal Democrats believe these questions must be answered now with policies that actively engage both older and young people in society and working life, with people having the right of self-determination to create and pursue their opportunities.
Population ageing also affects the developing world. Developed countries became comparatively rich before they aged; many developing countries will age before they become rich. This fact has important implications for the EU’s development policies and will affect the development of trade and competition.
Furthermore, as Europe begins to recover from the worst recession since the 1930’s it is imperative that changes to Europe’s demography do not hinder our ability to innovate, create and be competitive and in this regard the free movement of people and knowledge and a fully functioning Single Market are vital. Equally important is having a sufficiently sized workforce and, in addition to increasing the participation of country nationals into work, we must also take advantage of the emergence of the pan-European labour market and the process of (economic) migration and immigration.
Migration affects the composition of our societies and is not a new phenomenon; the relocation of people across the world has been taking place for centuries. Without policies which address the economic and social aspects of immigration, undue pressure can be felt in recipient countries. Liberals consider that the migration of skilled third country workers into and between member states to complement the workforce of member state nationals remains an important way to maintain Europe’s workforce, stimulate research and innovation and ensure the EU’s global economic competitiveness. Relocation of third country nationals can also occur through people claiming asylum in EU countries as a result of a justifiable fear of persecution in their own country and Europe’s Liberal Democrats support the notion of a Common European Asylum System.
This opening exposition of the current situation contains little that we, as British Liberal Democrats, could disagree with. The stance on non-EU migration is that which our Party took into the General Election campaign (with little positive response from the voter), the support for a common European Asylum System would probably make little difference to the current position - I suspect that any proposal acceptable across Europe would be more restrictive than current UK policy.
So, what are the 'liberal, democratic answers'? Stick with me, gentle reader, as 'Liberal Bureaucracy' probes further...
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