Securing supplementary pension rights
20 June 2007
Speaking in a debate in the European Parliament on supplementary pension rights, Jim Allister MEP recognised that with increased worker mobility and shortfalls in many pension schemes, this was an issue which needs addressed. At present different rules make for great diversity of treatment, but the arena for resolution lay not in diminishing national controls but in co-ordinating actions between affected countries.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
"In this age when few jobs are for life, when state pension schemes are generally inadequate, when worker mobility is uninhibited and where Europe has a notably aging population, deficiencies in pension arrangements are of increasing significance. Thus, what can be done to ensure an adequate pension regime, should be done.
Supplementary pensions for many are an essential part of their financial planning. Thus the rules governing them should not be stifling or restrictive, nor should they afford opportunity for government grab by stealth taxes, with which we are all too familiar in the UK.
My primary plea, therefore, is that in promoting the mobility of pensions we do not merely impose a new layer of EU regulation. Member states must retain control of what happens in their own countries."
