By Sophie Petitjean
On 15 November, the European Commission closed its four-month public consultation on how to ensure adequate, sustainable and safe pensions. According to Anne-Sophie Parent, director of AGE Platform Europe, opinions are likely to differ on the application of the Solvency II regime to pension funds and on the establishment of a 28th pensions regime at EU level. According to her, applying Solvency II to pension funds in order to ensure their solvency risks coming up against the diversity of funds (this proposal is nevertheless supported by France), while a 28th regime is rendered complex not only by technical issues but also due to compatibility with EU legislation in terms of equal treatment between workers.
Reactions
AGE (which represents the over-fifties), the European Youth Forum (representing youths) and the European Women’s Lobby (a coalition of women’s associations) are calling for the greater coordination of all pension schemes at EU level. While all three welcome the emergence of the debate, they stress, by means of a joint press release, the need to take into account new trends, both in the labour market and within society as a whole, particularly by emphasising the acquisition, preservation and portability of pension rights for mobile workers in the European Union and equality between men and women.
ACCA, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, pleads in its response for cultural change, improved coordination supported by the creation of jobs and the greater involvement of employers themselves. “Employers should be encouraged to offer collective schemes, which have a great potential to reduce the costs of the system,” said John Davies, an expert on the issue of pensions within the association. “Legal guarantees for the provision of complementary pensions could also play an essential role in case of employer insolvency even if the option preferred by ACCA is not the setting up of obligatory measures guaranteeing the entirety of the provisions (because they would be a significant burden on the states),” he concluded.
In its response, France supports the idea of a directive establishing minimum standards for the constitution and transfer of complementary pension rights, as proposed by the Commission. Moreover, the latter plans to publish a new text in the first half of 2011; it could also legally revive the draft directive abandoned at the Council in 2008. On the other hand, Paris is calling for a regulation on professional pensions institutions, whose field would be broadened to all institutions covering existing professional schemes and to pension savings schemes, which are non-professional but which have the same characteristics (such as the absence of liquidity during the capital constitution phase and annuity settlements).
Background
Over the course of the 14 questions launched on 7 July via the publication of a green paper, the European Commission was in fact considering how Europe could support national efforts in terms of the sustainability of pension schemes. In particular, it raised questions concerning the prolongation of professional life, the internal market for pensions, the mobility of pensions in the EU, gaps in EU regulation, the future solvency regime for pension funds and the risk of employer insolvency, as well as decision making and governance at EU level.
On 29 October, the date of the last major high-level meeting on a European scale before the close of the consultation, Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner László Andor announced that he had already gathered some 200 responses. Over the coming months, he is expected to present a summary of the various opinions expressed and has already announced a white paper for the third quarter of 2011. “All proposals will be supported by an impact analysis,” he specified.
