The May 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs contained a now-seminal article on European demography by Nick Eberstadt, "Healthy Old Europe" which argues that Europe has one great demographic opportunity ahead - capitalizing upon the potential of "healthy ageing" - but making benefit of this potential advantage will require a major re-thinking of life, work and policy in Europe. The population of western Europe is aging steadily, and the region's birthrate is well below the replacement level, but Europe's elderly are exceptionally healthy. That means they could be more productive for longer than their predecessors were. If western European governments learn to tap this potential, healthy ageing could become the region's next great economic asset. Professor Eberstadt will be in Brussels at CNE's invitation to speak at a CNE Health lunch on his paper.

Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute and is Senior Adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research.

The speaker's book, Europe's Coming Demographic Challenge: Unlocking the Value of Health is now available here from AEI.