BRUSSELS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The monthly pension of Nelly Willame, 81, is about 1,586 euros. Her rent is capped at 436 euros a month through social housing in Belgium, while public health insurance covers her basic medical costs.
Located in Brussels' eastern suburbs, Willame's apartment is on the fourth floor of a large social housing complex. She enjoys retirement by painting and caring for her fluffy companion, a Russian Blue cat. Rising energy costs have not weighed too heavily on her, as a municipal welfare institution allows her to benefit from discounted energy rates.
In Italy, 73-year-old Tiziana Cataldi, who spent her career working in the public sector, receives a monthly pension of around 1,900 euros.
"It is enough to meet my current needs, partly because I am married and my husband receives a higher pension than I do," she said, adding that primary healthcare services are generally able to meet older people's needs in the country.
Bernhard Ebbinghaus, a German pension expert at the University of Mannheim, noted that public pensions are the backbone of old-age income across Europe, adding that countries with more generous welfare provision generally record lower levels of poverty among older people.
Even excluding pensions, an International Monetary Fund report published in 2026 said other social protection mechanisms across Europe also helped reduce poverty among older people.
According to the European Commission's 2026 report "Demographic Transformation in the EU," expenditure on age-related sectors amounted to 24.4 percent of the EU's GDP in 2022, with pensions accounting for 11.4 percent.
The figures are comparatively high. Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed that public spending on pensions and benefits stood at 7.1 percent of GDP in Britain in 2022 and 7.3 percent in the United States in 2023.
Yet as Europeans live longer, retirement is becoming an increasingly lengthy stage of life. The challenge is no longer simply how to prevent poverty in old age, but how to help older people remain independent, connected and fulfilled while ensuring that today's welfare model can be sustained for future generations.
Financial security is only one part of a good retirement. Across Europe, there is growing recognition that staying active and connected to the community is essential to maintaining quality of life in old age.
Nicole DuJacquiere, an 84-year-old self-employed retailer from Belgium, has been receiving a pension for more than 20 years but remains busy running her tea shop.
"I work because I feel happy when I make friends with my customers," she told Xinhua, adding that the tea shop only breaks even. For her, however, it provides something more valuable than profit: a sense of purpose and an important boost to her mental well-being.
"I think old people should be helped to have a vision and to look forward to," she said. "Retired people still have a future."
Sophie Brouhon, DuJacquiere's daughter, is an associate of WARNED, a nonprofit organization that helps local retirees stay active and continue playing a role in society.
According to Brouhon, the organization regularly holds events for retirees, helping them maintain social connections while developing new projects through which they can share their knowledge and experience.
"Europe is undergoing an adaptation to a longevity society," Brouhon told Xinhua, adding that longer lives should also include independence, choice and social connection. "Old people are retired, but they are not expired," she said.
Similar forms of support have emerged across the bloc. In Spain, the EU-backed Red Salvia program uses mutual-support groups to tackle unwanted loneliness and help older people remain active in their communities.
In Poland, Warsaw's CAM Nowolipie intergenerational center runs the "Senior-Mentor" project, which recruits older residents with teaching experience to help schoolchildren with homework. The initiative gives retirees regular social contact while offering them a renewed sense of purpose.
Age-It, an Italian population research program, said in its report that a decent retirement should be measured not only by income, but also by capabilities, participation and intergenerational fairness - factors that give people reasons to get up in the morning. The OECD has similarly noted that community-based programs can reduce social isolation, improve well-being and help older people maintain autonomy, allowing them to remain active participants in society rather than merely recipients of support.
Even as Europe moves toward a broader understanding of what makes a good retirement, it must also confront mounting pressures from a shrinking working-age population and a widening long-term care gap.
As Europe's working-age population declines, the tax base supporting the welfare system is narrowing. The Commission's report warned that many member states with high tax burdens and significant projected pension expenditures have limited room to increase labor taxation to meet pension obligations in the near future.
Some European countries have sought to raise the retirement age and reform their pension systems. Such measures have often triggered resistance and controversy, in part because deeper inequalities remain unaddressed, said Claire Kumar, head of policy and senior research fellow at ODI Europe.
Kumar told Xinhua that health inequality is also an overlooked dimension of retirement. Lower-income people may enter old age with fewer financial resources while also facing shorter life expectancies and fewer healthy years.
Willame, who spent years doing cleaning work and has a chronic respiratory condition, recalled: "I cannot imagine still cleaning staircases at 67."
Long-term care may prove an even greater test. The number of people over 50 potentially requiring such care is projected to rise from 36 million in 2025 to 48 million by 2070, according to the EU report. Yet in 2025, the EU had only 3.3 long-term-care workers for every 100 people aged 65 and above.
That gap is now largely filled by family members. When asked what she would most like to improve in her life, Willame said she wished she could afford someone to help with the housework. For now, her granddaughter helps, although she is still in school.
Cataldi described herself as one of the "luckily privileged" retirees with a supportive family. Yet she noted that public long-term care support remains insufficient and said she planned to make arrangements before she needs more assistance.
"I will try not to place too much of a burden on my children," she said.
(Xinhua intern Zhao Ziru also contributed to the story)
