Brussels, 15/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - Welcoming the draft joint report by the Council and the Commission on viable and adequate pensions, the "Association européenne des institutions paritaires" (AEIP), which also includes representatives of countries entering the EU such as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. stresses in a press release that the degree of consultation of social partners to establish national strategies on retirement varies greatly from one country to the next. AEIP also points out that it will closely follow the development of common indicators that should make it possible to have quantitative elements, not available to date, that establish a comparative inventory between the different Member Sates. In order to be truly useful, these indicators should be the subject of close association between social partners not only in the development stage but also during validation, AEIP writes. Finally, AEIP welcomes enlargement of the open method of coordination on pensions in candidate countries and states that it will endeavour to make them sensitive to this exchange of good practices (Info.: Sybille Reichert in Brussels. Tel.: 02230 9330. E-mail: sybille.reichert@aeip.net).