Pensions integration in the European Union

Article abstract:

This article assesses the development of a single market in occupational or supplementary pensions. The article analyses the three main difficulties in establishing that market. They are: (a) the need to ensure the full freedom to provide the service of managing pension funds; (b) to open the possibility of creating a Community-wide pension fund by cross-border investment of pension fund assets; and (c) to ensure full freedom of cross-border membership of pension funds within the Community and thus open up the possibility of pan-European funds. Cross-border membership inevitably means the harmonisation of Member States' taxation of supplementary schemes. The first two difficulties are discussed in terms of the new IORP Directive recently agreed by the Council. The article then goes on to examine the judicial activism of the Court of Justice in bringing about tax harmonisation, a harmonisation that has not been possible to agree politically.