The position of SenioriNET and FONSS members related to the fact that the Ministry of European Investments and Projects as well as the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection have removed all measures of recovery & resilience for the elderly – those most affected by the Covid 19 pandemic – from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan
More than 80 nongovernmental organizations, providers of social and socio-medical services, issue a warning related to the exclusion of reforms dedicated to the elderly from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
It is with concern that we observe that the reforms dedicated to the social services for the elderly are entirely missing in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan addressed to the European Commission and released by the Ministry of European Investments and Projects on July 2, 2021. Thus the plan, setting the priority fields for investments in order to overcome the crisis, to relaunch the economy and to increase the resilience capability of Romania, ignores the needs of 3.8 million elderly, keeping them in social deprivation and social isolation.
The current National Recovery and Resilience Plan does NOT include any of the reform proposals dedicated to the elderly sent by the nongovernmental organizations providing social services, in attention of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, as well as to the Ministry of European Investments and Projects, during the public consultation period of time, thus completely ignoring the civil society’s voice. Furthermore, the current National Recovery and Resilience Plan does NOT include any reform proposals of the social services for the elderly, which had been included in the intermediate versions of the plan, such as the one in March 2021 proposing the reform of the social services on long term care.
We consider it mandatory that the Ministry of European Investments and Projects, along with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection give the due importance to the elderly and file proposals in order to meet their needs, taking into account the context of the speedy demographic aging phenomenon.
The open letter can be fully read here.