Mr President,
Your Excelencies,
Disdinguished delegates

Austria would like to thank most cordially the Spanish government for hosting this outstanding event, from which decisive answers to the challanges of population ageing will derive.

Austria fully associates with the statement delivered by the Euopean Union.

The revision and further development of the International Plan of Action on Ageing adopted by the United Nations in 1982 offers indispensable orientations and guidelines to respond to the challenges of the demographic revolution.

It is only if we can adequately assess and recognise the true dimension of the future developments that we can also develop adequate strategies and take concrete measures.

It was the large merit of the International Plan of Action adopted at the first World Conference on Ageing in Vienna, in 1982, to build the cornerstone for making this demographic development in the future both comprehensible and "tangible" for politicians and society alike. At the same time the International Plan of Action also marked the beginning of a re-evaluation of ageing in society: its central objective was to offer older persons both economic and social security and the opportunity to take part in the development of their country.

Today, twenty years on, the revised Plan of Action broadens the perspective of the demographic development and relates it to the development agendas of the recent world summits and thus renders the challenges and necessities of action visible in even greater detail.

This is demonstrated by the following

- the Plan of Action establishes the important relationship between population ageing and the necessity of sustainable development;
- it focusses on the promotion of health and well-being over the life-cycle - and stresses the challenges of a newly added fourth stage of life, a novelty in human biographies that has come up during the last 50 years;
- demographic change is seen in the context of a policy for all ages.

At the same time the revised Plan of Action also is a document that clearly shows the awareness-building process and the changes in paradigms in the perception of ageing in the course of the past twenty years. Austria, in particular, can point to a long and successful tradition of participation in this process:

- The International Plan of Action 1982 was developed in Vienna under Austrian presidency and with the active involvement of the "Vienna-NGO Committee on Ageing".
- The principles for older persons adopted in 1991, to which we still feel committed - independence, participation, care, self-fulfilment, and dignity - were also developped with substantial contributions of the "Vienna-NGO-Comittee on Ageing".
- The third preparatory meeting of the "Technical Commitee" in preparation of the Second World Assembly on Ageing was equally held in Vienna in April 2001 and hosted by my Ministry.

Our special commitment in the international discussion on questions of ageing for more than 20 years is naturally also reflected in Austria's policy for older persons. Over the past few years our ageing policies has experienced a clear change in paradigm: in Austria ageing policies do not longer mean making policies for older persons, but shaping policies with the active participation of older persons. We focus on the full participation of older persons in society on an equal footing.

We highly welcome the fact that the revised Plan of Action also stresses the effective implementation of the objectives of ageing policies on all governmental levels in cooperation with the Non-Governmental-Organisations and the United Nations System. As a result of our change in paradigms for ageing policies, Austria is in a position to offer the international community numerous models and best practices in this context.

In Austria ageing policies are more than just securing pensions or the health system. A first clear step for strengthening the participation and opportunities of the older generations constitutes the Federal Senior Citizen Act of the year 1998, which provides for the funding of the activities of the major organisations of older persons. The "Federal Senior Citizen Advisory Committee" was set up on a national level to put forward concrete proposals for the further development of policies for and with older persons.

Finally, the amendment to the Federal Senior Citizen Act adopted in 2000 made it possible to inaugurate a new era for the representation of senior citizens in Austria: The "Austrian Council of Older Persons", functioning as the umbrella association of all organisations of older persons in Austria, was authorized by law as the official representation of Austrian older women and men. In all matters affecting older persons in Austria the "Austrian Council of Older Persons" is now on a par with the official representations of the interests of the employees, the employers, and the farmers. This means that in all matters affecting them directly Austrian senior citizens have an equal say. Today, with the Austrian model of the embodiment of the participation and involvement of older persons in law, we are setting a remarkable example in the European Union.

And we are about to develop this model solution even further: the Federal government's Democracy Package includes plans to embody a ban on discrimination on grounds of age in the Austrian Federal Constitution. Against this background we will screen our entire legislation for provisions incompatible with Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty. Austria will thus be the first country of the European Union including in its legislation on constitutional level a ban on discrimination on grounds of age.

The re-evaluation process of ageing initiated with the International Plan of Action 1982 mainly centres on the realisation that when reaching retirement age older persons still continue to contribute to the community as before. Also considering the upcoming shortage of labour in Europe as a result of the demographic revolution we cannot afford to renounce on the know-how and experience of the older workforce.

The International Year of Volunteers was a highly welcome support for our efforts to highlight the relevance of older persons for the well-being of the community. Older persons constitute an enormous potential for cross-generational voluntary activities. The more this potential is used the clearer it becomes that older persons are more than mere passive recipients, but instead provide active social contributions. Voluntary work is indispensable not just for the community but it also offers older people who have retired from active working life a possibility to find a new source for self-realisation - truly in line with the concept of active ageing.

We have implemented these goals in a model project clearly demonstrating the intentions and perspective of contemporary ageing policies. By setting up the "Citizen Centres for the Young and the Old" at 30 locations throughout Austria we have created platforms for voluntary work allowing older persons to engage themselves in activities for the benefit of the entire community within their own sphere in a selfdetermined way, guided by their interests, and on an honorary basis.

In Austria inter-generational solidarity is based on a solid foundation. According to the results of a study by our Ministry on the occasion of the International Year of Older Persons in Austria the young and the old are much more willing to approach each other and to offer mutual help than had been expected. This is an important basis for sustainably strengthening inter-generational solidarity which is one of the fundamental objectives of our policy for all generations.

We have taken the International Year of Older Persons as an opportunity for commissioning a comprehensive report on the situation of older persons in Austria. This comprehensive study is now providing us with detailed information on e.g. lifestyles, inter-generational relations, the health situation, the economic and social situation, the recreational and educational behaviour, the mobility and political participation of older persons in our country. The findings of this first report on the situation of older persons also make it clear that ageing and generational policies are a interdisciplinary topic that needs to be mainstreamed in all political fields.

The results of this profound analyses develop an overall "Austrian plan for older persons". This will provide us with a political-strategic control instrument of ageing policies that represents the basis for political decisions especially in the areas of social policy, the economy, health, housing, and culture. In addition to the findings of the senior citizen report and our expert groups set up on the occasion of the International Year of Older Persons, the revised Plan of Action on Ageing and the regional implementation strategy to be discussed in the autumn at the ECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing will, of course, also be integral parts of our plan for older persons.

The demographic changes with all their well-known challenges for the health and social systems, the pension system, care and family policy, the economy and education require a clear avowal of the active and positive design of the social framework conditions. The demographic change is not a threat as is sometimes suggested, but enriches our lives: the increased life expectancy we owe to the progress achieved in science, medicine, and health policy is doubtless one of the major achievements of mankind. Today in Austria the average life expectancy for men is roughly 75 and that of women 81. It increases by yet another year at fiveyear-intervals. Ageing in good health while leading a self-determined life and being fully integrated in society - this is a perspective we have to open up for an ever increasing number of people.

In Austria we have taken very important and exemplary steps already in the past to approach this goal - and we will further continue along this path towards a society for all ages truly in line with the revised Plan of Action.

Thank you, Mr. President.