EUROPEAN CENTRE s EUROPÄISCHES ZENTRUM s CENTRE EUROPÉEN POLICY BRIEF JULY 2010 Intergenerational Solidarity: Policy Challenges and Societal Responses by Asghar Zaidi, Katrin Gasior and Alexandre Sidorenko The Spanish EU Presidency event “Conference on Active and Healthy Ageing”, held at Logroño (La Rioja), 29-30 April 2010 celebrated the European Day of Solidarity between Generations on 29 April. Convened under the aegis of the European Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity – PROGRESS (2007-2013), the authors presented to the first day Plenary Session on “Policies and Actions in Europe for an Active and Healthy Ageing”. Their presentation, “Intergenerational Solidar- ity: Policy Challenges and Societal Responses”, complemented the earlier plenary sessions which had discussed policy practices at local, national and European level in relation to the enhancement of solidarity between generations. 1. Introduction The challenges associated with population ageing in EU countries are traditionally sketched out in two contrasting ways. First, there is a concern about the financial sustainability of public welfare systems, which are af- fected adversely by a rising share of older age population. Such concerns have become more evident and evidenced in the wake of the worst eco- nomic downturn Europe has faced since the 1930s. Second, important as fiscal prudence in public spending has become, it is also considered imper- ative that European social welfare systems continue to provide adequate retirement incomes and sufficient basic social services, such as health and social care, in old age. Each of these concerns justifiably merit the policy scrutiny and prior- ity which are happening –albeit at varying degrees and pace – across EU countries and contributing to lessening the future economic challenges. A less discussed and also less clearly defined goal is that of social sustainabil- ity, which encompasses both the ideas of pension adequacy and financial sustainability, but also includes an inter-generational solidarity aspect. The notion of social sustainability requires that a balance is achieved between the distribution of resources across different generations at a single point Asghar Zaidi is Director Research, Katrin Gasior is Researcher, and Alexandre Sidorenko is Senior Advisor at the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research,Vienna. Policy Briefs are a publication series providing a synthesis of topics of research and policy advice on which European Centre researchers have been working recently. Keywords: Population ageing; intergenera- tional policies; UN policy frameworks The notion of social sustain- ability in societies experiencing population ageing encompasses the ideas of pension adequacy and financial sustainability, and also aspects of solidarity between generations.