Pan-European pensions on the horizon
The European Commission (EC) has released a new Green Paper which advances the case for more development regarding cross-border pensions schemes, according to global professional services company Towers Watson.
Towers Watson Senior International Consultant Paul Kelly explains that whilst the Green Paper also deals with Solvency II and state pension ages it does mark an advance in the development of cross-border pension schemes.
Towers Watson suggests that if the Pensions Directive is altered as the Green Paper implies then cross-border pensions could become a mainstream feature.
The firm also backs the EC view that the present state of the Pensions Directive does not go far enough as it does not address unfunded arrangements, has been inconsistently interpreted and does not sufficiently address the interaction with national social and labour law.
The pensions landscape in Europe could be substantially improved by the EC Green paper, according to Kelly, who added that the review is a welcome catalyst.
Pensions have grown as an issue of importance in the United Kingdom recently, following revelations that the main unfunded public sector pension schemes are worth in excess of 40% of salary.
It remains to be seen how the concept of pan-European pensions would be viewed by the Coalition Government, which is grappling with the difficulties of cutting public sector pension costs.
Category: Insurance News
Visited 1467 times, 1 so far today
Comments (0)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
There are no comments yet. Why not be the first to speak your mind.