Joint call: the new EU Commission must give space to its ambitions on long-term care
In December 2022, the EU took a crucial step towards addressing the long-term care crisis with its Council recommendation, aiming to improve the affordability, accessibility, and quality of care services. However, the new European Commission’s mission letters fail to fully reflect this ambition, focusing primarily on workforce shortages and overlooking the broader, multifaceted nature of the issue.
Civil society organisations and trade unions call on the Commission to adopt the full vision of the European Care Strategy, recognising long-term care as a social responsibility rather than a private one. This includes supporting informal carers, particularly women, who face economic and social disadvantages, and improving working conditions for professional care workers. There is also a need to promote rights-based, person-centred care services and ensure that care providers, including not-for-profit organisations, are prioritised over profit-driven entities.
To ensure progress, the Commission should create a European Long-Term Care Platform for monitoring policies and involving all relevant stakeholders. With Europe’s ageing population, it is essential that the new European Commission acts boldly and comprehensively to meet the needs of over 30 million people requiring long-term care and the workers who support them.
Read the joint call here.
