Mr. Ivailo Kalfin:

First, we have to deal very carefully with statistics. When I say 80% I refer to 80% of people of working age but I do not mean full-time care. People might go to work but after work they have an elderly family member to take care of. They might have parents they have to visit, prepare dinner for, give medication to and so on. The 80% statistic refers to any type of care, not just full-time care. I agree that it is a huge figure.

We conduct a lot of research into care work. Very often it is unpaid, even if it is not within the family. We have people who are caring for people in other families. This is work that is not regulated. There is no working time, no holidays, no fixed salary and so on. Countries deal with this very differently. There are social policies and national priorities and they have developed over time, with different approaches taken to elderly people. There are some countries with a lot of nursing homes for elderly people while in others, that is not the norm. In my country, for example, there are some nursing homes but culturally it is unacceptable to send one's parents to a home. Those who do so are often working abroad or something like that and cannot look after them. It is part of the mentality of the people that they have to take care of the elderly. There are very different experiences in the member states but I would not say that there is a model that is excellent and that could work everywhere. We could share some research on that with the Deputy. We recently published a report on ageing at work, which is also a very interesting. It contains comparisons between countries. The key is to adapt the workplace and the working conditions, including working time, work intensity and so on, allowing elderly people to use their brains rather than their physical strength. That pays off.