KINCS successes in EU decision making
At its plenary session of 9 October 2024, the European Committee of the Regions adopted its opinion on the communication from the European Commission of 11 October 2023 entitled "Demographic change in Europe: A toolbox for action". The draft opinion was prepared and edited by Ádám János Karácsony, Vice-President of Pest County Municipality, with the active support of the Kopp Mária Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS). Dr. Árpád József Mészáros, Strategic Vice President, assisted the rapporteur as an expert in the preparation of the document.
In the opinion on the toolbox to address demographic challenges, and in particular their impact on Europe's competitive advantage, local and regional leaders call for the demographic dimension to be integrated into all EU-funded policies. In the opinion, local leaders call for coordinated EU policies and targeted funding to address demographic trends that threaten regional competitiveness and growth. An ageing population, declining fertility and birth rates, the brain drain and urban-rural disparities are among the demographic challenges affecting Europe's competitiveness. As demographic trends vary across Member States and regions, particularly in less developed and rural regions, policies need to be developed that are based on local realities. In its adopted opinion, the Committee of the Regions not only welcomes the Commission's communication on “Demographic change in Europe: A toolbox for action”, but calls for more coordinated regional policies to promote growth and jobs, support families and improve work-life balance.
Member state policies at both central and local level need to put in place measures that can effectively remove barriers to family formation, improve access to childcare and promote gender equality. In addition to increasing women's labour market participation, there is a strong focus on ensuring the early economic stability of young people, thus enabling them to start a family. It is also crucial to develop appropriate strategies at national and local level in Europe to counter the negative effects of demographic change. To this end, local and regional representatives support related EU initiatives aimed at counteracting the brain drain of young people (the Talent Management Mechanism and the Talent Capital Platform). The need for central and local decision-makers in regions at risk of talent loss to actively and effectively promote the attraction and retention of people with specific skills should not be overlooked.
Cohesion policy funding instruments and resources must not only be mobilised, but must also be more effective than hitherto in addressing regional disparities caused by demographic changes such as talent loss and depopulation. Meanwhile, cohesion implementation rules need to be fine-tuned to take better account of national characteristics. The Committee of the Regions has underlined its expectation that the demographic dimension should be integrated into the current and future multiannual financial framework.
János Ádám Karácsony, rapporteur (HU/ECR), Vice President of the Pest County Assembly, stressed that "Our priority is our citizens. Therefore, we need to face the demographic challenges in our regions and Member States with a realistic and family-friendly policy. At EU level, we must also ensure that we provide adequate support and opportunities to meet the needs of parents, offering incentives to those who are committed to raising children."
Panel discussion on talent retention with a KINCS expert in Brussels
The second meeting of the Harnessing Talent Platform (HTP) was attended by dr. Éva Gellérné Dr. Lukács, external expert at the Kopp Mária Institute for Population and Families (KINCS) in Brussels. Launched in November 2023, the platform aims to identify good practices that can help regions retain talent and thus maintain their competitiveness. This objective is in line with the Enrico Letta report and the Draghi report, which also emphasise the support of the right to stay in addition to the right to free movement. This objective is also of particular importance for Hungary. The platform has four working groups, organised by themes: digital issues, health, territorial development and research and innovation.
Dr. Éva Gellérné Dr. Lukács is a member of the working group that focuses on health, where she is the leader of the sub-group "Challenges and opportunities of an ageing population". The subgroup has done a lot of professional work over the past year, producing a problem identification paper and starting to collect and process good practices. All the Platform's problem identification papers are available here: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/communities-and-networks/harnessing-talent-platform/working-groups_en
Some of the good practices identified are based on cross-border good practices, but there are also a number of solutions that are successful within a particular Member State. The common denominator is that successful projects can be adopted in other Member States.
