Monday, July 31, 2006
Italian pensions [IT]
epn has an interesting article about the occupational pensions situation in Italy, another laggard country. Fortunately, there is an Association for the development of the market in pension funds!
Saturday, July 29, 2006
FSAP transposition database
(IPE) The EU Commission has preëmpted our plans by making available a database of member state legislation transposing Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) directives (see new link in the sidebar). While this looks like a very useful tool indeed, providing original documents and linking to their original location, it remains to be seen how well the database is being kept up to date. The recently enacted Belgian legislation for instance does not show up in the database. It seems that country notification triggers an update. Also not included is EEA transposition legislation.
Rising retirement age north & south [DK] [GR]
The political debate about the sustainability of static retirement age in the face of rising life expectancy in European countries is beginning to bear fruit. While Alpha Bank of Greece expects (according to this article in Handelsblatt) that the retirement age for recent job starters will have to rise to 75 from the current average of about 60, the local politicians apparently do not grasp the seriousness of the situation quite yet.
Meanwhile, up north in Denmark, a broad consensus among the most important political parties has resulted in an agreement to reform the country's social security system. According to a recent article in NZZ which is not available online, the average productive period of a Danish person went from 40.5 years in 1979 down to 38.5 years in 2005, while at the same time, life expectancy rose by 2.25 years, resulting in the prolongation of the average pension duration from 19.25 years to 21.5 years.
The pragmatic Danes have resolved to raise the retirement age to 67 (from 65) by about 2025. Thereafter, the retirement age will be adapted dynamically to the average life expectancy, which is probably the most sustainable approach.
Meanwhile, up north in Denmark, a broad consensus among the most important political parties has resulted in an agreement to reform the country's social security system. According to a recent article in NZZ which is not available online, the average productive period of a Danish person went from 40.5 years in 1979 down to 38.5 years in 2005, while at the same time, life expectancy rose by 2.25 years, resulting in the prolongation of the average pension duration from 19.25 years to 21.5 years.
The pragmatic Danes have resolved to raise the retirement age to 67 (from 65) by about 2025. Thereafter, the retirement age will be adapted dynamically to the average life expectancy, which is probably the most sustainable approach.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Belgium transposes Directive [BE]
According to IPE on its redesigned website, Belgium has now escaped further sanction by the EU Commission for non-transposition of the Pensions Directive by passing the law 51K2534 on 13 July.
Evidently, the Belgian Association of Pension Institutions has been instrumental in designing that bill, but search as we might, there was no functioning website of this Association to be found.
Evidently, the Belgian Association of Pension Institutions has been instrumental in designing that bill, but search as we might, there was no functioning website of this Association to be found.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Legal commentary
It may not be the very latest news, but it's still a quite useful resource that is available online: the legal commentary of the Pensions Directive by Simon Arnot, published by the EFRP in 2004.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
