On December 8th, 2022, the Employment, Social Policy, Health, and Consumer Affairs Council configuration (EPSCO) adopted a Council Recommendation on access to affordable, high-quality long-term care. Furthermore, in September, the European Commission released the first-ever proposal on long-term care- European Care Strategy . An initiative to ensure quality, affordable and accessible care services across the European Union and improve the situation for both care recipients and caregivers. This proposal comes at a time when Europe’s population is ageing and facing demographic changes that affect the availability of care.

Eurodiaconia is pleased to see EU-level progress by EPSCO’s adoption of this Council recommendation on LTC, which aims to tackle challenges identified in the EU Care Strategy.

Firstly, we welcome the proposal for Member States to ensure the adequacy of social protection for long-term care, in particular by ensuring that all people with long-term care needs have access to care.Secondly, we are glad to see the call for Member States to identify informal carers, support them and provide them with access to social protection and adequate financial support.Furthermore, we welcome the move to have Member States put in place a long-term coordinator to support and monitor the implementation of this recommendation.

However, we regret to see that  Member States are not required to present national action plans to the Commission; on the other hand, we look forward to the measures Member States will take within the next 18 months.Eurodiaconia and its members are ready and willing to partner with national authorities through the available mechanisms to make sure persons in need of care can access affordable and good quality care.

You can read the Council Recommendation on access to affordable, high-quality long-term care here.