Brussels, 16/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption last week by 368 votes to 40 and 56 abstentions of the report by Carlo Fatuzzo (EPP, Italy) on the Commission's communication "supporting national strategies for safe and sustainable pensions through an integrated approach" (see EUROPE of 6 April, p.15), the Parliament supports the Commission's request to use the open method of coordination for pensions by extending it and consolidating it with a list of indicators, national strategic reports and the identification of good practices. The EP calls on the next European Summit to take concrete decisions, including a timetable for implementation of the open method of coordination. The Parliament also calls on the Commission to give preference to collective retirement systems and to take a stance in favour of a reserve pension fund. It considers it is the responsibility of Member States to guarantee that all retirees have a pension that allows them to live decently and independently and to thus take part in the cultural and society life of society.
In an enlarged Europe, there will be 100-200 million people in retirement. It is important that they should live out their retirement in good conditions, said Carlo Fatuzzo (Partito dei pensionati). They must also have the possibility to work beyond retirement age, but on a voluntary basis and on condition that they do not take work from the young, he added. Speaking for the Committee on Women's Rights, Marian Sanders-ten-Holte, Dutch Liberal, recalled how vulnerable this category of workers is, more concerned than the rest of the labour market by part-time work. British Conservative Roy Perry noted that a growing number of persons would be working and taking their retirement in a Union country other than their own. Their governments, he said, must ensure they may do so in good conditions. On the level of principles, the European Commission proposes a new method, that of "open coordination" (see EUROPE of 6 April, p.15), supported by the rapporteur. It is, however, precisely because of this method that Gabriele Stauner announced the CSU's negative vote. According to the Bavarian MEP, the Union cannot extend its authority in this way in areas that come under Member State competence.
The method is defended, on the other hand, by Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, who noted that it has already been used in employment policy and in the fight against poverty and exclusion, with good results. The EP must not, she says, fear being set apart from the process. The Committee on Social Affairs may be very well briefed on what is happening in this area. The question of retirements must be regulated at national level, added the Commission, explaining that the Union has not said it wants to intervene in these systems or direct them but, because of worker mobility, it is imperative to cooperate in an area which, because of the ageing population, will become of increasing importance throughout Europe.
During the debate, the vice-Chair of the Committee on Social Affairs, Marie-Thérèse Hermange (EPP, France), regretted that the "French government is one of the last to size up the indispensable and urgent reforms" that are needed since, "in 2040, there will only be two workers for every pensioner". In Ms Hermange's view, preference should be given to "an approach of free choice, centred on the individually different courses taken by the different employees and their different times of life, putting an end to retirement that comes down like a chopper, bringing with it an incalculable waste of human resources".