| Population aging is the change and trend of the world population.The elderly are a huge age group in human society.How to better protect the rights of the elderly has become a legal issue that needs to be solved urgently in every country and even the international community.At present,the protection of the rights of the elderly has become a global issue and is showing an international trend.It is impossible to adapt to this change by relying solely on the protection of domestic laws.Therefore,we need to study new methods for the protection of the rights of the elderly,and the EU soft law protection of the rights of the elderly provides a new method of protection.Global problems also have regional manifestations.As a global problem,the protection of the rights of the elderly is more obvious in the EU.With the deepening of the ageing of the EU and the development of EU integration,the protection of the rights of the elderly in the EU has become a common problem faced by EU member states and is universal;in terms of space,the protection of the rights of the elderly in the EU has broken through the original domestic issues.Boundaries,cross national borders and are foreign-related;in terms of the scope of influence,the protection of the rights of the elderly in the EU is no longer only related to the overall interests of a country’s society,but has also become one of the important factors affecting the social and economic development of the EU,so it has a regional nature.The change makes it impossible to effectively achieve equal protection of the rights of the elderly simply by relying on the domestic laws of member states,but requires the EU to take certain measures to deal with it.With its characteristics,soft law meets the objective needs of the protection of the rights of the elderly in the EU and the subjective needs of EU member states.The efficient and quick formulation of soft law enables it to quickly respond to the protection of the rights of the elderly in emergencies.The flexibility of soft law makes it possible to form preliminary protection standards on the basis of differences in legal systems for the protection of the rights of the elderly in EU member states.Soft law with fewer sovereign restrictions can ease EU member states’ fears that the expansion of EU powers will threaten their own sovereignty,making it easier to reach consensus on what to protect the rights of the elderly.It is precisely because of the advantages of soft law that it is superior to hard law that it is favored by the EU and its member states,and has become an important way to protect the rights of the elderly in the EU.recognition becomes possible.As an important way to protect the rights of the elderly in the EU,the formulation of soft law also shows particularity.From the perspective of the formulation subjects,the formulation subjects of soft law are diversified.According to the EU basic treaties,the European Commission,the European Council and the European Parliament are all important formulation subjects of soft law.With the transformation of EU governance,social organizations,the public They have also participated in the formulation of soft law and become the main body of the formulation.From the perspective of expression,the forms of soft law are diverse,including those clearly stipulated in the EU’s basic treaties,such as recommendations and resolutions,and those not clearly stipulated in the EU’s basic treaties but recognized in practice,such as the Green Paper,Charter,etc.From the point of view of the formulation process,the soft law formulation process is justified.The information in the soft law formulation process is open and transparent and reflects extensive democratic participation,which makes the content of the rights of the elderly protected by soft law more specific and clear.The regulations at the institutional level need to be tested in practice.Whether soft law protection can produce practical effects is an important indicator to test whether soft law can effectively protect the rights of the elderly.The rational choice of EU member states and their recognition of soft law is one of the important reasons why soft law protection can be complied with.In addition,soft law protection enables member states to consciously abide by soft law provisions in order to avoid competitive pressure and reputational damage through evaluation mechanisms,incentive mechanisms and monitoring mechanisms.Facts have proved that the protection of the EU soft law on the rights of the elderly has been effectively complied with by EU member states in many areas related to the protection of the rights of the elderly.This shows that although soft law is not legally binding,it can be effective in practice,allowing the elderly to enjoy equal protection like other social groups,which is precisely the fact that the EU hard law protection cannot be effective in the field of the rights of the elderly effect achieved.The "hard effect" of the EU’s soft law protection of the rights of the elderly is evident from the "soft constraints" of the EU’s hard law protection of the rights of the elderly.The rights of the elderly in the EU are protected by soft law and hard law,although the two are clearly distinguished and play their respective roles according to their own characteristics,but this form of protection is not static,but will change dynamically with the development and changes of the actual situation.The role of soft law in solving the protection of the rights of the elderly in the EU is beyond doubt,and the future trend of soft law protection of the rights of the elderly in the EU has also attracted attention.In fact,since the appearance of soft law,the debate between soft law protection and hard law protection has never stopped.The development of soft law protection for the rights of the elderly in the EU is not only due to the constraints of soft law itself,but also from the EU,member states the driving force of the state and social organizations.Therefore,in the future,the protection of the rights of the elderly in the EU will still include soft law protection and hard law protection at the same time,but the soft law protection will be the main one.It can be seen that soft law protection is an important way to protect the rights of the elderly in the EU. |