Global Aging Forum: The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Population Aging in the EU

Speaker:
Declan Costello, Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission

Chaired by:
Richard Jackson, Director, CSIS Global Aging Initiative and Neil Howe, Senior Associate, CSIS

Dr. Declan Costello, Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission, spoke on “The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Population Aging in the EU.”  He heads up the working group that produces the EU’s long-term projections of public pension and health-care spending.  He talked about the bottom line numbers in the latest projections, the underlying assumptions, and the impact of recent reforms—especially “automatic stabilizers” like those enacted in Sweden and Germany.