The European Union’s Approach towards Ageism

Abstract

Age counts among the non-discrimination grounds that the European Union (EU) is equipped and mandated to fight based on its treaties. At the same time age discrimination is the only form of inequality that is widely accepted as normal, legitimate, and justifiable. This chapter argues that the EU is far from delivering its promise for a “society for all ages” and without discrimination. Despite a promising framework provided by its founding treaties, the EU has an asymmetric legal and policy response to the challenges of old age. This chapter discusses how the Union’s conceptualization of ageing and older people and its narrow agenda to alleviate ageism are susceptible to prejudice. Based on a substantive understanding of equality, it maintains that in order to tackle the structural barriers that perpetuate ageism, the EU needs to act in a wide range of policy areas, and human rights must be put at the forefront of such efforts. It proposes using article 25 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which enshrines “the rights of the elderly’” as the normative imperative on which a more substantive application of age equality needs to be based. A human rights-based approach can become the EU’s antidote to ageism as it guarantees an in-depth analysis of how EU law and policies affect the rights of older people and what further action is needed to materialize them, taking due account of both individual and public responsibility.

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