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TRAMP – Transnational Mobility of Older People in Europe
1. Mobility of Senior Citizens as a
Chance for Europe
A participant of the TRAMP exchange
programme commented: ”In my opinion
this was an actively-lived Europe of citizens”.
This illustrates that citizens perceive
only a minor section of Europe and tend
to view it as a Europe which consists of its
political representatives and thus the heads
of governments. It is nevertheless a Europe
for all citizens and all age groups. “Europe
for all” means that Europe should be experienced
in the true sense of the word – by
everyone.
European projects should emphasise the
personal responsibility and the potential of
its senior citizens. In this context, education
plays an integral and supportive role
which strengthens the personal responsibility,
evokes potential and enables the participation
of people with different cultural
backgrounds.
Visibility and benefits of such initiatives
in Europe require a multiplication in many
different variants while continuing to develop
the personal responsibility of citizens
for a Europe of citizens. The elderly need
to be given the chance to assume social responsibilities
in Europe.
This may indeed have economic effects,
for example resulting in new forms of active
travel, new areas of activity in educational,
youth and senior citizen organisations
or also leading to other ventures so that seniors
may still participate in a lifelong learning
experience throughout their working
life in order to expand key competencies
such as social and intercultural skills.
58 Part 1
Recommendations for the European Commission
2. Creating Potential for Europe
There is a large number of highly motivated
senior citizens in Europe who are willing
to apply their skills for the common good.
They are highly prepared to take over responsibility
and to commit to socially meaningful
projects in a European context.
They show a great interest in intercultural
as well as intergenerational contacts. However,
many of them lack language skills and
financial or organisational means. The appropriate
support could
•
•
create a tremendous learning field for
these seniors regarding new European
experiences, a new self-confidence and
independence
create a huge exploitable potential of
competencies for the EU, which could
be very valuable in terms of solving a variety
of minor practical problems on a
local and communal level and in terms
of promoting comprehensive political
goals such as active ageing, social inclusion
and intergenerational solidarity.
3. Visualising Europe on a Local
Level
The manual projects, which were conducted
within the scope of the TRAMP project,
were specifically “invented” for these
exchanges, i.e. they were not ongoing tasks
of the participating organisations and incidentally
taken care of. They were delayed
necessities or small dreams, which, in addition
to everyday business, were carried out
and fulfilled with great commitment, great
skill, much work and the support of the
European Commission. All participants