Last week, the European Commission released its first-ever Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness. After years of campaigning to ensure that EU policies consider their impact on future generations, The Good Lobby – a co-founder of the Future Generations Initiative – welcomes this development. The Strategy marks the first recognition that today’s decisions on climate, defence and security,, housing, technology and public finances shape the lives of people who cannot yet speak for themselves.
A welcome step
The Strategy proposes several promising tools to embed long-term thinking into EU policymaking, including a Future-Oriented Policymaking package, stronger use of strategic foresight, and the creation of an Intergenerational Fairness Index. If designed with scientific rigour, such an index could become a powerful way to track whether EU policies truly benefit current and future generations. It also recognises that intergenerational inequality is often territorial. Where you are born – whether in rural, remote or disadvantaged regions – shapes life opportunities across generations. The proposed Voices of the Future initiative with the Committee of the Regions could help bring local realities into a debate that often remains abstract.
The gap between diagnosis and action
At the same time, the Strategy’s ambitions are not yet matched by the scale of the challenges it identifies. The Commission itself warns about widening generational gaps in housing and wealth, the erosion of democratic trust, and the massive economic costs of climate inaction. Yet most of the proposed responses focus on dialogue, analysis and exchanges of best practices. These are useful starting points – but they are only the beginning.
The real opportunity: the Better Regulation revision
The most immediate opportunity to turn this Strategy into meaningful change is already on the table. The EU Better Regulation Guidelines are currently being revised. Embedding a proportionate intergenerational fairness impact assessment into this framework – as proposed by the Future Generations Initiative – would ensure that EU policies systematically assess their long-term effects on future generations. This is a key policy ask in our manifesto. Our first proposal – the establishment of a Commissioner responsible for future generations – has already become reality. The next step is to ensure that every major EU policy considers its impact across generations before it is adopted.
A door has opened
The EU has taken an important first step by recognising intergenerational fairness as a core policy challenge. Now the task is to translate this recognition into stronger institutions, better policymaking tools, and binding safeguards for the future. The Good Lobby and partners in the Future Generations Initiative will continue working to ensure that this Strategy becomes not just a statement of intent – but the foundation for truly future-proof European policymaking.