Joint Statement: The new EU Commission must give space to its ambitions on long-term care

Joint Statement. Brussels, 26 March 2025

The new EU Commission must give space to its ambitions on long-term care

Mental Health Europe, alongside 20 civil society organisations and trade unions, has issued a joint call urging the new European Commission to expand its ambitions on long-term care beyond workforce shortages and deliver systemic, rights-based reforms. The statement, released today, underscores the urgent need to address the growing crisis in long-term care, which impacts millions of Europeans requiring support due to age, disability, or illness.

A call for rights-based, person-centred care

The joint statement builds on the momentum of the 2022 Commission’s Communication for a European Care Strategy and the Council Recommendation on long-term care, which called for affordable, accessible, and high-quality care services. While Member States have taken initial steps, the new Commission’s mandate risks narrowing its focus to workforce shortages alone, overlooking critical issues such as affordability, gender inequality, and the rights of care recipients and workers.

Key demands include:

• Strengthening social protection to ensure long-term care is a pillar of EU social policy, not a private burden.
• Supporting informal carers (disproportionately women) through care leave rights, respite services, and social protections to mitigate economic and health impacts.
• Investing in quality community-based care to accelerate the shift away from institutionalisation.
• Improving working conditions for care workers, including fair wages, skills recognition, and safeguards against exploitation.
• Tackling financial speculation in the care sector to prioritise people over profit.

The statement highlights the interconnectedness of long-term care with broader societal challenges, including poverty, mental health risks, and gender inequality. Signatories stress that care is a social responsibility requiring systemic solutions.

The coalition reiterates its proposal of establishing a European Long-Term Care Platform to monitor progress and ensure transparency, with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including civil society organisations.

Signatories

• AGE Platform Europe
• Alzheimer Europe
• Autism-Europe
• Caritas Europa
• CECOP – European confederation of industrial and service cooperatives
• CESI – European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions
• COFACE Families Europe
• EAPN – European Anti-Poverty Network
• EFFAT – European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism Sectors
• EFFE – European Federation for Family Employment & Home Care
• Eurocarers
• Eurodiaconia
• EuroHealthNet
• European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD)
• European Disability Forum
• European Federation for Services to Individuals
• Make Mothers Matter
• Mental Health Europe
• PICUM – Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants
• UNI Europa Global Union