Quality Ageing in an Urban Environment
Almost all cities and regions in Europe face radical changes in the structure of society at the moment. Due to demographic change the number of older workers (55-64), elderly people (65-79), and very elderly people (80+) increases while the number of people in working age decreases. Accelerated demographic ageing can seriously threaten the achievement of the Lisbon agenda’s main objective to increase the competitiveness of Europe by mobilizing all existing development potentials. Increased competitiveness of Central Europe hence depends on the success of creating a competitive international investment climate, where the elderly are a well-integrated layer of society.

Q-AGEING is focused on creating better conditions to enable active ageing by developing actions which really belong to the competences and legal responsibilities of local/regional authorities. Therefore the actions are concentrated on public services and urban living environment. Both aspects are interlinked.

A balanced society in which seniors play an active role, where public services for the older generation are well organised and which has an urban structure adapted to the specific needs of an ageing population is an important quality aspect which plays also a role in investment decisions for international firms. Active ageing is therefore a main concern and still primarily linked to job creation, which contributes to social well-being. To achieve this it is necessary to enhance social acceptance of seniors by both employers and the wider society and to prepare the senior workforce to become more competent and competitive through lifelong learning.

To reach the objectives of the project it is up to the public sector partners in the project, together with knowledge institutes and an expert panel to create the conditions facilitating this process by putting innovative state of the art solutions for service provision into practice, by adapting cities and the urban environment to the specific needs of elderly people and by using and/or promoting new technologies to bring innovative and effective solutions to public services.