Oct 27, 2025 Active ageing

The Secretary General of FERPA, Agostino Siciliano, took part in the 10th General Assembly of UCR Force Ouvrière, held on 14–15 October 2025 in Ronces-les-Bains, France.

In his address to the Assembly, the Secretary General spoke about the issues affecting millions of European citizens, in a Europe that remains far too distracted when it comes to pensioners — their rights, their needs, and their demands.

That is why we must all fight together, calling for adequate and fairly indexed pensions across Europe, as well as for a European minimum pension to help combat poverty among older people. We must also defend universal access to healthcare, including territorial care, to ensure that elderly people can receive proper treatment wherever they live in Europe.

We need to fight for adequate housing that meets the needs of the ageing population, backed by the necessary investments, and we must keep energy costs under control, since high bills are pushing many older citizens into energy poverty.

As FERPA, we call for greater attention from the European institutions to the 100 million elderly citizens in Europe, and we expect the same commitment from the ETUC, so that our shared demands can become those of all European trade union confederations.

Siciliano expressed his gratitude for the invitation from UCR FO and for the important contribution it is making to FERPA. He urged the General Assembly to continue its fight against those who seek to curtail the rights of French workers and pensioners — and to do so also at the European level, as UCR FO is already doing with conviction within FERPA.

“We are fighting for our rights,” Siciliano concluded, “but above all we are fighting to continue being treated as first-class citizens in this Europe that, I repeat, remains far too distracted from the problems of its elderly population.”