Pension Right and Entitlement Conversion ('Invaren'): No Account is Taken of the Charter

Abstract

In TPV 2014/17 Prof. R. H. Maatman discusses at great length the issue of so-called invaren (pension right and entitlement conversion). Maatman takes invaren to mean the of accrued pension rights and entitlements into rights with a different, conditional character.Maatman makes a highly valuable contribution to the debate and clarifies an issue that is often shrouded by semantics.I would, however, like to make one important comment, which should not be neglected: Maatman (like many other authors) entirely ignores the applicability of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter). This means that the conclusion of Maatman (and others), that the of 'invaren' is extremely small, could have a limited life. This must be kept in mind in view of the announcement that pension funds would like to take over the risk of pension right and entitlement conversion (invaren) from the Dutch State.In footnote 29 of his contribution Maatman writes:H. van Meerten claims that one may also rely on Article 17 of the CFREU. Cf. his presentation on www.knaw.nl. I do not yet see how this would add anything to Art. 1 FP ECHR.In this contribution I will explain this in more detail.