ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) is comprised of twenty-seven separate sovereign countries which are unified by a Constitution, Central Bank, President, Parliament, and in the majority of members a common currency, the Euro. The Western EU countries tend to have fairly long-term and extensive sets of comparative data on population aging and gender. The more recent entries, and less economically strong, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries of Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria tend to have briefer and more disparate histories of data collection and reporting. In 2006, the European Union Council approved the Pact for Gender Equality in which women were guaranteed equity in employment, income security, and services. The EU Constitution, which came into effect in 2009, also pledged to eliminate all discrimination against women. This paper reports some of the available information on older CEE women and how some EU policies can exacerbate their health or economic challenges.
