Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago

---

▶️ Session Four - Intergenerational Fairness: How to deliver a fairer future for all?

How often when proposing new policies, or indeed deciding not to act, do we take into account their long-term implications and how they may affect future generations? For example, deciding on the use of non-renewable natural resources. Or on climate action – knowing that human-induced climate change will impact all areas of our lives – increasing the risk and severity of extreme weather conditions and natural disasters, as well as climate-triggered conflicts and migration. In public finance, excessive debt accrued today to meet our needs will limit public policy choices in the future. Decisions taken today on education policies, the development of new technologies, or migration will have long-term consequences for economic innovation and competitiveness, the labour market and social policy in the coming decades. Decisions on health policies and investment in health research will shape the well-being of future generations and our ability to address challenges related to an ageing population.

With increasing understanding of the long-term implications of decisions we take today, and the need to look at these implications in a more coherent way, the concept of Intergenerational Fairness (IGF) is gaining ground. In shaping decisions and policies, we should seek to take into account their impact on future generations, and aim ensure that meeting our current needs does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The European Commission is currently developing an intergenerational fairness (IGF) strategy, scheduled for publication in early 2026. It is doing so at a time when the narrative is shifting away from conflict between generations towards solidarity and shared responsibility, and to the use of science and foresight to think long-term and create fairer societies.

How can this agenda be advanced in practice given the diversity in approaches across the European Union? What we can we learn from pioneers of this approach both in Europe and elsewhere in the world? What new future challenges can we foresee and how can they be addressed? Do we need a new, forward-looking ‘IGF contract’, and what could it look like?

Speakers:
Fernando Mariano Sampedro Marcos, State Secretary for the European Union, Spain
Virginia de Ângelis Oliveira de Paula, National Secretary of Planning, The Ministry of Planning and Budget, Brazil
Professor Pieter Vanhuysse, Full Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy, Department of Political Science and Public Management and the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, University of South Denmark
Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, Director-General, Directorate-General for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport

Moderator:
Jacob Ellis, Director for External Relations and Culture, Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales