Can the EU achieve adequate, sustainable and safe pensions for all in the coming decades?

Abstract

The latest financial and economic crisis has shown that European economies are all interdependent and no Member State can any longer guarantee on its own the adequacy, sustainability and safety of its pension system. In March 2011, all European Union (EU) leaders agreed that new EU rules are needed to address financial markets’ erratic behaviours and to ensure the long-term sustainability of social protection systems across the EU. The new fiscal consolidation rules should help bring more coherence in the EU economic policy coordination and should enable Member States to make better-informed decisions when reforming their pension systems. In doing so, policy makers should, however, not only be concerned with ensuring economic recovery, but also with protecting Europe's social cohesion. It is and should remain the duty of public authorities to ensure that their national pension systems, regardless of how they are organised, deliver adequate incomes in old age to guarantee a decent life to all. The objective of adequacy of pensions systems should receive equal attention to the objective of sustainability and safety, and the impact of proposed reforms on vulnerable groups, such as women with career breaks, should be addressed.