Suchergebnisse

One of the most important changes in the development of population in European Union (EU) is demographic ageing - due to remarkable reductions in fertility levels and increasing life expectancy, the proportion of persons aged 60 and over is increasing very rapidly. The actual size of the elderly population in several EU countries already exceeds the projected estimations for 2010. These demographic challenges confirmed the importance of social affairs for its policy agenda. In combination with technological, structural and political change, Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the prospects for further enlargement of the Union to the East, socio-demographic trends had intensified pressures on welfare systems, raising questions about the feasibility and desirability of achieving a common social policy and about the future shape of the "European social model". The emphasis placed on workers' rights in the Community's and Union's treaties and charter signalled that European social policy was only indirectly concerned with categories of the population who did not gain entitlements to social protection as active members of labour force. The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, later the Single European Act and the Treaty on European Union made no reference to older people. A statement on European policy for this potentially disadvantaged category of former or would be workers was, however, introduced into the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers and a new article on non-discrimination in the Treaty of Amsterdam identified age among the areas where discrimination was to be eliminated. ; Spartus ES valstybių demografinis senėjimas XX–XXI amžių sandūroje bei šio proceso prognozės kelia didelį susirūpinimą socialinės politikos kūrėjams: kaip užtikrinti lygias galimybes visoms kartoms ir integruoti pagyvenusius žmones į visuomenę. Siekiant spręsti šias problemas, nauji uždaviniai kyla socialinių paslaugų, pensijų, darbo rinkos politikos ir kitoms sritims. Straipsnio tikslas – įvertinti visuomenės demografinio senėjimo padarinius ir aptarti socialinės politikos pagyvenusiems formavimąsi ES valstybėse. Šiuo tikslu aptariami gyventojų amžiaus struktūros pokyčiai ir demografinio senėjimo veiksniai ES valstybėse, analizuojama socialinės politikos pagyvenusiesiems raida nuo Europos Bendrijos sukūrimo iki paskutiniosios Europos Sąjungos plėtros į Vidurio ir Rytų Europą bei išryškinamas jos vaidmuo integraciniuose procesuose.