On Wednesday 15 November, PensionsEurope sounded the alarm at the recent decision of the Romanian government to reduce the level of social security contributions paid into private pension schemes to 3.75% of employees' gross pay, from 5.1% at the moment, even though the 2008 law on pensions provided for contributions to represent 6% in 2017. The organisation calls upon Romania to stick to its previous course and has launched an appeal to all member states.
“Romania has been able to build excellent private pensions and should not start to dismantle them by lowering the level of contributions”, said Janwillem Bouma, the chair of PensionsEurope, in a press release.
According to the Romanian government, this reduction will not affect the nominal value of the contributions paid, as the reduction measure will be offset by an increase of 20% in gross salary from 1 January 2018.
PensionsEurope sees this specific case as a European problem. All of Europe is facing an ageing population and all governments will come under growing pressure on their social services, the organisation stresses.
It argues that Europe cannot rely on state pensions alone and that private savings from pre-funded systems should be encouraged. It is a clear long-term policy of the EU and requires member states not to depart from this for short-term political reasons, it concludes. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)