Dear participants,

Thank you so much for inviting me to address you today.

I am grateful to Campus Tivoli and the Wilfried Martens Centre for organising this conference.

The demographic reality is that our societies are ageing.

Life-expectancy is now at 81.4 years on average. This is good news.

Grandparents can spend more time with their grandchildren.

And many people can live longer and healthier lives.

 

However, our fertility rate is at a new historic low of 1.35 births per woman on average. 

In Austria, it stands at 1.31. In Germany, the fertility rate is at 1.35. And in Italy, it is at 1.18.

Ageing in Europe has profound implications.

It amplifies labour shortages and therefore impacts our competitiveness.

It forces us to upgrade our capacities and to have more people working in medical and long-term care. And

It puts the sustainability of our pension and social systems under considerable pressure.


What can we do? What should we do?

We should support families.

Career opportunities often come up at the same time as couples want to have children.

We should close the so-called fertility gap, which is the difference between the desired and the actual number of children.

People should have a choice.

They should be able to opt for taking time to look after their children, so we should promote flexible or part-time working models.

They should be in a position to follow a career path and to have children. So, we need quality childcare to avoid “either-or” decisions.

And they should have access to housing. Families cannot settle down and grow, if there is no sufficient housing or if it is not affordable. We clearly need to tackle this trend, too.


Let us not forget that there is a strong regional dimension to demography.

People often move to bigger cities in search of jobs and urban leisure. Which can lead to depopulation of the regions.

But there should be a “right to stay”.

This is a challenge for rural areas, as the quality of life does play a considerable role when families or young people take decisions on where to live.

 

However, this is also an opportunity for quality jobs.

It will be easier to attract talent where housing is affordable, where you have appealing outdoor leisure activities coupled with a good education and medical infrastructure, and digital and transport connectivity.

Everything just mentioned demonstrates that demography is a topic so important for our social fabric.

I wish you a fruitful and inspiring debate and thank you for your contribution.

Thank you.