Addressing the launch of the 17th Third Age Festival at Cankarjev dom, Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Anja Kopač Mrak said a long-lived society was a key challenge.

"The worst thing that can happen to a society is an inter-generational conflict," the minister said, so she was pleased the festival provided an opportunity for an open inter-generational discussion.

The minister also called on employers to improve their attitude to older employees and said more effort should be invested into reducing poverty among older people, and into listening to their problems.

The opening event also heard welcome addresses by Minister of Education, Science and Sport Maja Makovec Brenčič, Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec, the head of the Pensioners' Association Janez Sušnik and Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković.

The three-day festival will feature a total of 65 lectures and workshops, six discussions featuring economy, healthcare and cultural officials, as well as 130 cultural events.

The opening panel debate discussed strategies for a long-lived society with the participants expressing the hope that the goals from the strategy passed by the government in July would be met.

Boštjan Vasle, director of the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, said the strategy took into consideration the increasing flexibility of the labour market.

He said the currently prevailing model of life cycle with education followed by employment and retirement would be replaced by a model intertwining education, work and life in retirement.

Labour Ministry State secretary Martina Vuk said the government was committed for action plans based in the strategy to be drawn up by the end of the year.

She promised for the ministry to financially support measures to adjust jobs to older workers and to fund their training.

This was in response to Marija Pukl of the Pensioners' Association noting that Slovenia had the lowest rate of employment in the group aged between 55 and 64 among all EU members.

The association is drawing up a memorandum for 2018 to warn of key problems faced by senior citizens in Slovenia and express its expectations about what should be done, including labour market and health reforms.

Health Ministry State Secretary Jožica Maučec Zakotnik announced that a bill on long-term care would be presented for public consultation on 1 October with proposed solutions to be tested in pilot projects from 1 January 2018 onwards.

Statistics released today show that one out of five Slovenians is aged 65 or above with projections showing that by 2030 a quarter of Slovenia's population would fall in this age group.

This, coupled with the decline in the active population aged 20 to 64, is projected to push up expenditure for pensions, healthcare and long-term care to 20.6% of GDP by 2030.

Data from the Statistics Office show that 19.1% of Slovenia's population is aged 65 and above, which is up from 16.5 seven years ago.