Care and caring in Europe: common challenges, common solutions

2026-07-22

Europe’s demographic ageing gives rise to a growing prevalence of age-related diseases, a growing demand for care and a serious sustainability challenge for our social and health care systems. In Europe, 80% of all care is provided by informal carers, with women providing approximately two thirds of care mainly as daughters (in law) and wives/partners. The contribution of these carers clearly constitutes a great resource for our society but their role is not always recognised and caring can have – if not adequately supported - many challenging consequences for the health and well-being of carers, their capacity to balance paid work with care responsibilities, their financial situation, their social integration as well as their access to employment and education. Advances in medicine also mean that carers find themselves having to deliver more and more sophisticated levels of care, with very little training and support. If society expects informal carers to keep providing care, their vital role and contribution must be recognised and their needs must be addressed. The overarching goal of Eurocarers is to raise awareness of carers as a discrete group facing poverty, social exclusion and discrimination; to campaign for policy development taking carers into account by working with key actors at local, regional, national and EU levels to promote their inclusion in society; and to recognise their invaluable contribution to the sustainability of health and long-term care systems. Our work and activities in 2022-2025 will therefore aim to document the situation of carers in Europe today as well as the solutions that exist or can be developed to support and empower them. In doing so, we will not only contribute to the recognition of carers as an important and yet largely invisible group, we will also contribute to the EU objectives in the fields of (youth) employment, social inclusion and access to sustainable social, health and long-term care systems for all in Europe.

Belgium

2025-12-15