Kover: EU should encourage policies tackling demographic decline

Rather than encouraging migration, the European Union should coax member states to create "national policies" aimed at avoiding a demographic crisis, Laszlo Kover, parliament's speaker, said on Thursday in Warsaw at a meeting of central and eastern European heads of parliament. Discussing demographic and labour market sustainability, Kover noted that western European countries with labour market problems had drawn in more than 25 million trained people from CEE since 1990. By 2050, it is estimated this figure will grow by another 20 million, he said, adding that the region should seek financial compensation from the EU to defray training costs of the emigrant labour force.