How to deal with an ageing population?

"The combination of an increasingly ageing population and a shrinking workforce poses huge challenges for our labour markets and social systems. It will place strong pressures on EU growth, public finances and living standards. One overarching means to ensure the EU is able to cope with the challenges associated with population ageing is to increase growth and employment. This is vital to keep age-related public spending relative to GDP on a sustainable path” - underlined Director General of BusinessEurope Markus J. Beyrer during his intervention at the World Demographic & Ageing Forum in St Gallen, Switzerland.

Speaking in a panel with the CEO of economiesuisse Monika Rühl and the DG of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) Markus Kerber he added “there is an urgent need to continue and intensify reforms of pension systems. The European Union should benchmark such reforms to encourage more forceful progress in the coming years. The goal is to ensure a sustainable relationship between levels of contributions, benefits and life expectancy in the Member States. This is essential to provide adequate pensions for future generations and fairness between the generations”.