Brussels, 22/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the report by Othmar Karas (EPP-ED, Austria), the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Committee ruled, on Tuesday, over the European Commission proposal aiming to open the way for an internal market for retirement pensions, which cover the national pensions schemes through capitalisation (see EUROPE of 11 October, p.14). The MEPs approved a series of compromise amendments, in order to align the positions of those who want to guarantee the security of pensions and the partisans of an opening of the national markets providing greater choice to the consumer.
The parliamentary committee recognised the need for the pension funds to ensure, in their investments, the balance between the revenue to be guaranteed and the growth of capital, in relation to the age of those affiliated and the revenue to be paid toward pensions. An amendment underlines that the proposal does not bring into question the rights of the Member States to retain the complete responsibility for the organisation of their social protection system, including in terms of pensions, while another amendment foresees a five-year transition period to allow the countries, where the private systems are less common, to adapt to the new provisions. Other amendments have as aim to associate social partners with the new multilateral agreement and to exonerate pension contributions from tax, the final services being, as for them, subjected to national tax provisions. It must be noted that the European Commission wants for the fiscal part to be tackled separately. Finally, the issue of the mutual recognition of supervision methods enforced in the Member States was also the object of amendments.
The debate in plenary will take place at the beginning of July in Strasbourg.