The President of the Jacques Delors Institute and former Prime Minister of Italy, Enrico Letta, said on Wednesday at the Forum Europa in Brussels that “the most important demographic challenge today is related to the ability to integrate immigrants”.
During an informative meeting organised by the New Economy Forum in the EU capital, Letta answered a question about what policies the European Union should adopt in the face of the demographic problem and the aging of the workforce.
Letta admitted that it is a complicated issue, but considered that the single market can offer some solutions to this challenge.
Some solutions, he said, involve the 27 working together to study what they can do in matters such as social affairs, the welfare state or opportunities in terms of mobility, among other issues.
AGEING
In any case, he said that “the most important demographic challenge today is related to the ability to integrate immigrants”.
In this regard, he warned that this concept “cannot even be used in half of European countries”.
To give an example, he explained that his country, Italy, will become the second country in the world this decade with 30% of the population over 65 years of age, only behind Japan.
For this reason, he stressed that it is a challenge that must be faced now, by adopting “the right decisions on retirement, pension systems and transitions”.
Secondly, he insisted that the right decisions must be taken on how to integrate immigrants into the workforce. “If we do not want to do it, the consequences will be there”, he concluded.
