Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been re-elected as vice president of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI), a Christian democratic political formation, in Brussels.
According to MTI, CDI’s general meeting adopted a draft resolution, tendered jointly by Fidesz and Slovenia’s SDS party, concerning Europe’s demographic strategy. The document outlines that Europe’s population is declining in a global comparison. While the current 27 EU members accounted for 12 percent of the global population in 1960, that ratio has now dropped to 6 percent, and is expected to fall below 4 percent by 2070.
The draft also points to Europe’s ageing population, with the ratio of people over 65 having now reached 21 percent in the total population, and the ratio of children under 15 having dropped to 15 percent. It says there are a number of possible solutions to reverse the population decline, such as building family support systems, helping families expecting babies and reinforcing communities. The CDI is “deeply convinced” that family policy should remain a national competency.
Finally, it said migration should not be used as a tool to resolve demographic challenges, calling on the EU to “consider demographic aspects first in all its policymaking and build mechanisms to counterbalance the impacts of migration on demographics”.
Photo credit: MTI