#Seniorinetti

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Aihe: Innovation Union: Commission launches consultation on active & healthy ageing
Päiväys: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 15:45:06 +0100
Lähettäjä: <Peter.Chloupek@ec.europa.eu>

Brussels, 26 November, 2010

The European Commission is seeking the views of public and private
organisations, companies and individual citizens on how Europe could
scale up innovation to meet the challenges of the ageing population in
Europe, and in particular on a pilot European Innovation Partnership
(EIP) on active and healthy ageing, as set out in the Innovation Union
Flagship Initiative, presented on 6 October by Maire Geoghegan Quinn,
European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science and Antonio
Tajani, Vice-President for Industry and Entrepreneurship. Between 2010
and 2030, the number of Europeans aged over 65 will rise by nearly 40%,
posing huge challenges but also offering great opportunities for
Europe's society and economy. The EIP, which the Commission has proposed
should be launched in 2011, would seek to meet three goals: to improve
the health and quality of life of older people, enabling them to live
active and independent lives; to contribute to the sustainability and
efficiency of health and social care systems; and to foster
competitiveness and business opportunities . The online consultation
runs until 28 January 2011.

John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy said:
"Europe needs to prepare for the future ageing of its society and the
use of innovation shall be one of the tools at our disposal. This is why
I am very pleased that the very first of the Partnerships is on Active
and Healthy Ageing: it will imply a close cooperation across different
policies covering public health, research, digital and industrial policy."

Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda said:
"People are living for longer - and should be able to do so as actively
and independently as possible, with the help of innovative solutions
such as fall-detection and prevention devices, easy to use social
interaction services to overcome loneliness, and smart use of ICT in the
home. We need input from stakeholders to make sure the future Innovation
Partnership can help to make these ideas a reality for Europe's senior
citizens."

The consultation invites interested stakeholders, such as organisations
representing the elderly and patients, hospitals and care service
providers, health and care professionals, insurers, Information and
Communications Technologies (ICT) and health companies, public
authorities and individual citizens, to help identifying current
barriers to innovation and opportunities in the field of active and
healthy ageing. Contributors can also share existing and future
initiatives which could be undertaken at European level and advanced in
a collaborative way. These should focus on how innovative solutions can
bring promising and tangible outcomes to benefit the elderly.

The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, as a
headline target, aims to increase the average healthy lifespan in the EU
by two years by 2020. It seeks to improve older people's quality of life
and to lead to more efficient care solutions. It will focus on applying
innovation on a larger scale than today in areas such as health
promotion, prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, integrated and
collaborative health and social care systems, independent living and
assistive technologies for older people.

The Commission will analyse the responses to the consultation, in order
to obtain a clear view of the innovation potential and capacity in the
multiple areas that affect ageing today. The responses will help the
Commission to plan the next steps for the EIP.

The online consultation runs in parallel to a Conference on the European
Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, which is taking
place in Brussels today. More than 150 stakeholder representatives are
due to discuss their ideas for the partnership to convert into concrete
actions.

Background

The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing is part
of the EU's "_Innovation Union: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovati...
strategy, one of the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives, to turn ideas
into jobs, green growth and social progress
IP/10/1288 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesA... .
The Innovation Union has a three-fold goal: making Europe into a
world-class science performer; revolutionising the way public and
private sectors work together, notably through Innovation Partnerships,
and removing bottlenecks – like expensive patenting, market
fragmentation, slow standard setting and skill shortages - that
currently prevent ideas getting quickly to market.

This corresponds to the Digital Agenda for Europe:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_socie...
and it's objective to harness the potential of ICT to boost prosperity and
improve people's quality of life (see
IP/10/581: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesA... ,
MEMO/10/199: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesA...
and MEMO/10/200: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesA... .
The Digital Agenda seeks inter alia to ensure that ICT allows a more
independence for people who are frail or suffer from chronic conditions
and for persons with disabilities. It aims to double the take-up of
independent living arrangements for the elderly by 2015.

Similarly, "fostering good health in an ageing Europe" was identified as
one of the three main objectives of the EU's Healthy Strategy "Together
for Health": http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/doc/whi...

The consultation document is available here:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_socie...

More information:

EC actions for "Ageing well in the information society"

EC actions in the area of ICT for health

The Public Health Portal of the European Union (Health-EU)

EC health in society – ageing

Digital Agenda for Europe

Innovation Union