The Competitiveness Council meeting held on 30 of September ended with an agreement reached on the launching of 'More Years Better Lives' initiative, a joint research programme. Ministers agreed that Joint Programming in research in the area of demographic change and population ageing as in the proposed initiative 'More Years Better Lives' will contribute to the reduction of fragmentation of research efforts of Member States.

Launching of joint research programming initiative 'More Years Better Lives' was one of the conclusions reached by the Competitiveness Council last 30 of September. The Council agreed that Joint Programming in research in the area of demographic change and population ageing as in the proposed initiative 'More Years, Better Lives' will contribute to the reduction of fragmentation of research efforts of Member States and will step up the mobilisation of skills, knowledge and resources, with a view to advancing and strengthening Europe's leadership and competitiveness of research and innovation in this field. The Commission proposed this initiative last July.

In addition, the Council underlined that there are large benefits to both individuals and society by extending the active and healthy life of older people, especially when the number of Europeans aged over 65 is expected to rise significantly by 42% from 87 million in 2010 to 124 million in 2030. Therefore, it invited Member States to develop a common vision, based on a multidisciplinary approach, on how cooperation and coordination in the field of research at the European level can improve addressing the challenges of the demographic change. Moreover, it asked Members States participating in the framework of the initiative to Develop a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) establishing medium to long term research needs and objectives in the area of demographic change.

On the other hand, the Council called on the Commission to act as a facilitator by suggesting complementary measures to support the Joint Programming initiatives and explore how to contribute with complementary measures to the Strategic Research Agenda as well as if and how to facilitate its implementation plan via EU funding instruments.