Brussels, 16/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 April, the European Parliament approved the compromise reached with the Council of the EU on rules that will enable European workers who move to another EU country to safeguard their supplementary pension rights. The Council still needs to give its final approval, which will then leave a four-year period for transposing the directive into national law.
The agreement was obtained in at second reading and no amendment was made to it. The Council of the EU approved the compromise text in December (see EUROPE 10986). Pension portability had already been agreed for Europeans (the social security coordination system principle). This new directive, however, extends this right to supplementary pension systems (the “second pillar”), financed or co-financed by employers, including forcross-border workers. It sets the necessary affiliation period to enjoy this right, to three years.
Ria Oomen-Ruijten MEP (EPP, Netherlands) was the rapporteur for the Parliament on this question and, during the plenary session debate in Strasbourg, she said that she was proud that, after ten years, this directive had finally been adopted. She again pointed out that this right to supplementary portable pensions was still not applicable to workers who change employers within the borders of a member state. Nonetheless, according to Commissioner Laszlo Andor (Employment and Social Affairs), shortly before the approval of the proposal, this is the “best compromise” that could be found, without a vote, even though this text differs from the one proposed by the Commission in 2005, particularly on the right to transfer pension capital to another pension system. The EPP, GUE/NGL, ECR, Greens/EFA and Social Democrats all backed the text. (JK)