Brussels, 08/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - During the Pensions Forum on 3 November, the Association européenne des Institutions paritaires (AEIP) published a study called the "National Social and Labour Legislation under the 2003 Directive on the Activities and Monitoring of the Professional Pensions Institutions", which was carried out in collaboration with the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) and supervised by Professor Yves Stevens.
In a press statement the AEIP explains that this directive focuses on how to implement the directive while respecting national social and labour laws. The study concludes that: 1) the directive does not intend to undermine national pension systems; 2) there is no single notion of social and labour law that is common to all EU Member States; 3) the subsidiarity principle applies to the organisations of social security systems. Professor Stevens notes, however, that Member States can expand the definition of their social and labour law to an extend where they could block implementation of the directive; 4) the effective functioning of the 2003 directive depends largely on Member State cooperation. (Info: http://www.aeip.net ).