Pension Mobility [EU]
Workers’ mobility
Facilitating the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pension rights
This proposal is designed to reduce the obstacles both to freedom of movement between the Member States and to occupational mobility within a Member State by optimising the conditions for acquiring supplementary pension rights and harmonising the rules governing dormant pension rights and the transfer of acquired rights. A further aim of the proposed directive is to improve the information given to workers on how mobility may affect supplementary pension rights.
Implementing the Community Lisbon Programme: proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving the portability of supplementary pension rights.
Proposal
This proposal for a directive provides for four main measures to protect the supplementary pension rights * of workers moving within the European Union (EU).
In the event of adoption, this directive will not apply to:
- supplementary pension schemes which, as at the date of entry into force of the Directive, will no longer be open to new members;
- supplementary pension schemes that are subject to measures intended to preserve or restore their financial situation;
- insolvency protection systems, compensation arrangement schemes or national reserve funds.
Conditions governing acquisition
The Member States are to take the necessary steps to ensure that:
- where active scheme membership is made conditional upon a period of employment, this period shall not exceed one year;
- where a minimum age is stipulated for the accrual by an active scheme member of acquired rights, this age shall not exceed 21 years;
- where an acquisition period is applied, this shall under no circumstances exceed one year for active scheme members over the age of 25, or five years for active scheme members below that age;
- where an outgoing worker has not yet acquired pension rights when the employment relationship is terminated, the supplementary pension scheme * shall reimburse the contributions paid by the outgoing worker, or paid on the worker’s behalf in accordance with national law or collective agreements or contracts.
Preservation of dormant pension rights
The Member States are to take measures to:
- guarantee that pension rights acquired by outgoing workers may be preserved in the supplementary scheme where they acquired them;
- ensure that dormant pension rights * or their values are treated in line with the value of the rights of active scheme members.
Information
This proposal supplements Directive 2003/41/EC on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision as regards information. The aim is to ensure that every potentially outgoing worker, whether or not a member of a scheme, will receive the necessary information on how terminating an employment relationship could affect supplementary pension rights.
Active scheme members who so request may receive information concerning:
- the conditions for acquiring supplementary pension rights;
- the consequences of the application of these conditions when the employment relationship is terminated;
- the value of their acquired rights or an evaluation of their acquired pension rights going back a maximum of 12 months from the date of the request;
- the conditions concerning the future treatment of dormant pension rights.
Deferred beneficiaries who so request may receive information concerning:
- the value of their dormant rights * or an evaluation going back no further than 12 months from the request;
- the conditions concerning the future treatment of dormant pension rights.
Minimum requirements
This proposal provides for the principle of non-regression.
Accordingly, the Member States may adopt or retain more favourable provisions than those laid down in the proposal.
The implementation of the directive may in no case lead to a diminishing of rights concerning the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pensions.
Implementation
The Member States must adopt the necessary laws, regulations and administrative provisions, or ensure that they are put in place by the social partners, within two years after adoption of this Directive at the latest.
Given the diversity of supplementary pension schemes, the Member States may be granted an extended period of five years (beyond the initial two-year transposition deadline) for transposing certain provisions which might be too restrictive in the short term.
Report
With effect from the year following the two-year deadline for adoption of this directive, the Commission shall draw up, every five years, a report based on the information sent by the Member States.
Background
The revised Lisbon Strategy and the Social Agenda (2006-2010) underline the importance of mobility for improving the adaptability of workers and businesses and increasing labour-market flexibility. Faced with the problem of an ageing population, the Member States are placing greater emphasis on supplementary pension schemes to cover the risks of old age. It is thus becoming particularly important to reduce the obstacles to mobility which stem from these schemes.
A first step in this direction was taken in 1998 with the adoption of a directive on safeguarding supplementary pension rights, aimed mainly at guaranteeing the right to equal treatment for people moving from one country to another.
The present proposal for a directive is designed to supplement the 1998 text. It has been preceded by two rounds of consultation of the social partners, with the Pensions Forum being closely involved.
| Key terms used in the act |
| ·        Supplementary pension: pension provided for by the rules of a supplementary pension scheme established in conformity with national legislation and practice.
·        Supplementary pension scheme: any occupational retirement pension scheme established in conformity with national legislation and practice, which is linked to an employment relationship and is intended to provide a supplementary pension for employed or self-employed persons. ·        Dormant pension rights: acquired pension rights which are retained under the scheme in which they have been accrued by a deferred beneficiary. ·        Value of dormant rights: capital value of the pension rights calculated in accordance with national law and practice. |
Safeguarding supplementary pension rights
This Directive is intended to remove obstacles to the free movement of employed and self-employed persons, while safeguarding their supplementary pension rights when moving from one Member State to another. This protection concerns both voluntary and compulsory pension schemes , with the exception of social security schemes covered by Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71.
Council Directive 98/49/EC of 29 June 1998 on safeguarding the supplementary pension rights of employed and self-employed persons moving within the Community.
Summary
This Directive applies to members of supplementary pension schemes and others holding entitlement under such schemes who have acquired or are in the process of acquiring rights in one or more Member States.
This Directive provides for four main measures to safeguard the supplementary pension rights of workers moving within the Community:
- Equality of treatment as regards preservation of pension rights
Member States must, for persons who have left a supplementary pension scheme as a consequence of going to work in another Member State, take the necessary measures to ensure the preservation of vested pension rights to the same extent as for persons in respect of whom contributions are no longer being made but who remain within the same Member State; - Cross-border payments
Member States shall ensure that supplementary pension schemes make payment in other Member States, net of any taxes and transaction charges, of all benefits due under these supplementary schemes; - Posted workers and supplementary pensions
Posted workers have the option of remaining within the pension scheme in their country of origin during the period of posting in another Member State. Posted workers and, where applicable, their employers are thus exempted from any obligation to make contributions to a supplementary pension scheme in another Member State. - Information to scheme members
Employers, trustees or others responsible for the management of supplementary pension schemes shall provide adequate information to scheme members, when they move to another Member State, as to their pension rights and the choices which are available to them under the scheme.
Background
While coordination of social security schemes allows migrant workers to fully preserve their accrued statutory pension rights, the portability of supplementary pensions (both occupational schemes and group insurance contracts) still needs to be improved.
In a Communication in 1991, the Commission opened the debate on supplementary pensions and gave a high-level group the task of identifying obstacles to the free movement of workers. The group concluded that legislative measures were needed but that these should be restricted to the following three areas:
- preservation of vested rights;
- cross-border payments;
- easier access for posted workers.
The Commission continued the discussions with all bodies involved in relation to the Green Paper on supplementary pensions published in June 1997 and confirmed the need for an act covering the aspects set out in this Directive.
| Key terms used in the act |
| ·        ‘Supplementary pension’ means retirement pensions and, where provided for by the rules of a supplementary pension scheme established in conformity with national legislation and practice, invalidity and survivors’ benefits, intended to supplement or replace those provided in respect of the same contingencies by statutory social security schemes.
·        ‘Supplementary pension scheme’ means any occupational pension scheme established in conformity with national legislation and practice such as a group insurance contract or pay-as-you-go scheme agreed by one or more branches or sectors, funded scheme or pension promise backed by book reserves, or any collective or other comparable arrangement intended to provide a supplementary pension for employed or self-employed persons. |
Information to scheme members
Employers, trustees or others responsible for the management of supplementary pension schemes shall provide adequate information to scheme members, when they move to another Member State, as to their pension rights and the choices which are available to them under the scheme.
Under Directive 2014/50/EU, workers in a supplementary pension scheme can ask how stopping employment or moving would affect their supplementary pension rights and the conditions that would apply to the future treatment of those rights.
People who have left the scheme must be informed about the value and treatment of their rights.
References
Act
Entry into force
Deadline for transposition in the Member States
Official Journal
Directive 98/49/EC
25.7.1998
25.1.2002
OJ L 209 of 25.7.1998
RELATED ACTS
Green Paper of 7 July 2010 towards adequate, sustainable and safe European pension systems [COM(2010) 365 final – Not published in the Official Journal].
Directive 2014/50/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on minimum requirements for enhancing worker mobility between Member States by improving the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pension rights (Official Journal L 128 of 30.4.2014).
Supplementary pensions
The legislation guarantees that people who move to another EU country to work will not lose the benefits they have already acquired in their existing company or occupational pension scheme.
Directive 2014/50/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on minimum requirements for enhancing worker mobility between Member States by improving the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pension rights.
EU countries provide state pensions for their citizens when they retire. Since the early days of the EU, these basic rights have been respected when someone leaves one country to work or live in another.
For the increasing number of people who have an additional pension scheme linked to their employment, and later decide to work abroad, the situation was far less clear. Many could lose out on their future pension if they left the job before fulfilling conditions such as lengthy qualifying periods. These either penalised them or deterred them from moving.
The legislation ensures that anyone with supplementary pension rights does not lose out when they go to live or work in another EU country.
Protecting rights
The directive stipulates the following:
Pension rights should be guaranteed after 3 years of employment at the latest. If a minimum age is required, it must not be higher than 21 years.
The rights of workers who leave an employer-run pension scheme before retirement must be preserved and treated like those who remain in the scheme on matters such as indexation.
Information
Workers in a pension scheme can ask its administrators how stopping employment or moving would affect their supplementary pension rights and the conditions that would apply to the future treatment of those rights.
People who have left the scheme must be informed about the value and treatment of their rights.
Timetable
The provisions of the legislation must be in place by 21 May 2018. The Commission will draft a report on its implementation by 21 May 2020.
References
Act
Entry into force
Deadline for transposition in the Member States
Official Journal
Directive 2014/50/EU
20.5.2014
21.5.2018
OJ L 128 of 30.4.2014