Brussels, 10/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - At the initiative of Anna Diamantopoulou, the European Commission approved, on 9 July, the decision on the setting up of a Committee in the field of supplementary pensions, the Pensions Forum. This decision aims to give a legal basis (Articles 138 and 140 of the Treaty) to the Forum and to allow it to continue its work.
Composed of 45 members (experts of national administrations, social partners and pension funds), the Forum may be consulted by the Commission on the problems and developments at Community level with respect to supplementary pensions. The Forum mainly helps the Commission to find solutions to the obstacles linked to the cross-border mobility of workers in the context of supplementary pensions. It may form working groups and its mandate, lasting two years, is renewable. It has already held three meetings since January 2000. During its meeting of 23 February, it was agreed that working groups should be set in place to assist the Commission in the preparation of a proposal on the transferability of supplementary pensions for the end of this year as planned in the Commission's contribution to the Stockholm Summit.
EUROPE recalls that the Commission supported this idea in its communication of 11 May 1999 on "a single market for supplementary pensions - results of the consultation relating to the Green Paper on supplementary pensions in the Single Market".