Lisäeläkeoikeuksien siirrettävyys
20.06.2007
Portability of supplementary pension rights (debate)
Wednesday, 20 June 2007 - Strasbourg
Piia-Noora Kauppi (PPE-DE ). ??? Madam President, I am happy to see this report reach this stage for a couple of reasons. The proposed changes go in a very sensible direction.
During the process, we were somewhat confused about the Commission proposals, for example on the retroactive implementation of the rules on vesting periods and about the difference between public, private and supplementary pensions. Thankfully, if we accept the proposed changes today, the outcome will be much better than the Commission???s original proposal.
We need to keep an eye on the bigger picture. If we make voluntary schemes too bureaucratic, and radically different from today???s alternatives, no one, especially not SMEs, will provide them. This will defeat the object of encouraging employers to expand the scope of voluntary schemes to more employees. It also means that the opportunity for companies to use voluntary schemes as attractive tools in recruiting employees and rewarding their loyalty will be lost. In addition, millions in investments will potentially be lost.
The objective is to encourage as many companies as possible to opt for the right kind of supplementary schemes and thus help alleviate, inter alia, the democratic time-bomb implications for publicly funded social security schemes. This can also be encouraged by leaving it up to Member States to decide when and how they will develop portability, so that companies located within them do not find themselves facing big surprises.
If we get this right, the EU can, without transgressing subsidiarity, make a genuine contribution to modernising social security in Europe and reaching its Lisbon goals. |
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