Memo: The economic crisis and pensions in the EU

The EU seeks to assist Member States in developing their pension systems towards the shared goal of providing adequate and sustainable pensions for all, through its Open Method of Coordination (OMC). The Commission's role in this is to highlight issues of common concern across Europe and to assist and encourage the sharing of data and best practice between countries. A major output of this process is the annual Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion.

There are many other ad hoc outputs such as the October 2008 report 'Privately managed funded pension provision and their contribution to adequate and sustainable pensions'. The report points out variations between Member States in approaches to private pension provision and the need to ensure that where funded private provision exists, its coverage and adequacy match its intended role.

Although pensions are primarily the responsibility of Member States, there is also some EU level framework legislation, notably a directive on occupational pensions. This directive, whilst leaving the detailed rules to Member States, establishes prudential standards for occupational pension schemes. In addition, the Insolvency Directive provides protection in the case of insolvency of a company which sponsors an occupational pension scheme.

• Primary Source