We must end discrimination against older people, Liz Lynne MEP tells Wolverhampton Pensioners Convention

11.42.00am GMT Tue 3rd Feb 2009

Liz Lynne, the LibDem Euro MP for Wolverhampton and the West Midlands addressed members of the Wolverhampton Pensioners Convention on Friday to talk about her role in the European Parliament and her work fighting discrimination against older people.

Liz spoke to the group about her recent work in helping draft a new Equal Treatment Directive that will outlaw discrimination in access to goods and services on the grounds of age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and disability. Race and Gender discrimination are already outlawed by other legislation.

She was welcomed to the meeting by Eileen Birch, the secretary of the group which meets every month at various venues around Wolverhampton.

Liz, who is Vice President of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the All Party Intergroup on Ageing, told members that fighting discrimination against older people was one of the biggest parts of her work as a West Midlands Euro MP in recent years. She said:

"I believe that anti-discrimination and equality are two of the most important areas of the European Parliament's work. It is vital that we continue to tackle unfair treatment of people at a European level, be it on the grounds of their age, disability, sexual orientation or religion or belief."

"It is very important that older people should be free to work for as long as they please and not be forced to retire simply because they have reached 65. Retirement must be voluntary. However, it is also important that the age at which the state pension becomes available does not change.

"There are some things that should not be done at European level and should be left up to the national Government. However, the EU is an important place for sharing ideas and best practice so that we can learn from other countries in Europe about what we can do better in all areas, including health."

Liz Lynne has been a long time campaigner on issues ranging from age discrimination to fuel poverty. She has also been campaigning for action, including new UK legislation, to fight the growing problem of older people suffering abuse, either from carers or within the family. She backs calls by Age Concern for new laws to give the protection of vulnerable adults the same status as that afforded to children.

In 2000 she was the draftsperson for the Employment (age) directive that lead to the UK Government being forced to introduce the ban on age discrimination in the workplace.

ENDS

Note: The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) is the biggest Pensioners organisation in the UK with around 1.5 million members nationwide. Their aim is to ensure that issues affecting older people are highlighted both to the public and to politicians and that older people are treated with dignity and respect and not as separate from the rest of society.