Israeli experts are helping launch a new international healthy-aging initiative at Lithuania’s parliament on Friday, hoping the European effort will also help Israel prepare for the pressures of an older population.

Currently, 22% of Europe’s population is 65 or older, according to Eurostat, compared with about 13% of Israel’s population, according to official Israeli figures for 2026.

While there have been national parliamentary initiatives on aging in Israel and the United Kingdom before, the International Parliamentary Cooperation Initiative for Healthy Ageing and Longevity is the first formal international plan bringing together experts and lawmakers from countries around the world.

“The goal is to help Europe, and if Israel is part of the European initiative, then all the policies that will be developed will benefit Israel as well,” said Ilia Stambler, who led a research paper that contributed to the formation of the Lithuanian initiative, speaking to The Times of Israel via video call.

Although the Israeli birth rate is higher than that of Europe, Stambler said that the health and economic challenges of an aging population “are coming for us too.”

“We hope that crucial policies that are developed now in Europe will also be enacted in Israel before it’s too late,” Stambler said.

Stambler is the founder and chairman of the International Longevity Alliance, and chairman of the Israeli organization Vetek (Seniority) Association – the Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life.

Shelly Hugler Livne, Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania, told The Times of Israel that the initiative combines “Israel’s cutting-edge technology, innovation, digitalization, and startups” with Lithuania’s “very strong scientific community that will benefit both nations, Europe, and the entire world.”

Livne, who will attend the Friday launch, said the effort “is not only about adding years to life, but adding life to years.”

The effort ‘is not only about adding years to life, but adding life to years’

The effort ‘is not only about adding years to life, but adding life to........

© The Times of Israel