On 6 February 2025, AGE Platform Europe, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI), and Equinet – the European Network of Equality Bodies – co-hosted a joint webinar “The missing piece in striving for equality in Europe: the case of age discrimination” exploring the urgent need to strengthen the protection of the human rights of older persons and to address age-based discrimination in Europe. The discussion brought together civil society organisations (CSOs), equality bodies, national human rights institutions, and European and international policymakers.
The webinar addressed age discrimination as a persistent and under-recognised challenge in the European Union’s (EU) equality framework. With Europe’s population ageing rapidly, current legal and policy frameworks are increasingly inadequate. Participants emphasized the need for stronger legal protections, improved data collection and a shift from a welfare-based model to one underpinned by human rights, ensuring autonomy, non-discrimination and participation. This will be possible only with a comprehensive and inclusive EU strategy on age equality. The event made clear that age equality is not only a human rights imperative —it is central to building resilient, inclusive, and just societies. Europe cannot afford to leave age as the “missing piece” in its equality puzzle.
Recommendations
- Adopt a Comprehensive EU Age Equality Strategy, ensuring that older persons are recognized as rights holders across all sectors of life.
- Swiftly adopt the Horizontal Equal Treatment Directive to expand legal protections against age discrimination beyond employment.
- Implement a rights-based approach to ageing policies that centers on autonomy, dignity, and participation.
- Improve disaggregated data collection to better understand and address the experiences of older persons, as well as inform inclusive and evidence-based policymaking.
- Integrate an intersectional perspective across all EU equality strategies and initiatives
- Strengthen enforcement of existing anti-discrimination laws
- Promote awareness and dismantle ageist stereotypes through education, campaigns, and policy reforms.
- Support the development of a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons, as an important tool to uphold human rights and fight discrimination in old age
- Enable and protect civil society, NHRIs, and Equality Bodies as essential actors in fighting discrimination, promoting equality and adherence to human rights standards.
- Facilitate continued multi-stakeholder dialogue and cooperation at EU, national, and international levels.