07 November 2018

Investment & Pensions Europe: MEPs stick with IORP II delegated acts in vote on sustainability proposal

The decision was taken as part of the vote in the parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee (ECON) on its version of the Commission’s proposal on “disclosures relating to sustainability investments and sustainability risks”.

Paul Tang, the MEP charged with developing the parliament’s response to the Commission’s proposal, had suggested scrapping the provision for delegated acts under the EU occupational pension fund directive, but this amendment was defeated in the ECON vote earlier this week.

PensionsEurope lobbied against the delegated acts for IORP II, with groups such as aba, the German pensions association, and Eumedion, the Netherlands-based corporate governance and sustainability forum for institutional investors, also opposing the provision.

Matthies Verstegen, senior policy adviser at PensionsEurope, said delegated acts were “a prescriptive legislative tool aimed a harmonisation, which cannot take account of the diversity in the European pensions landscape”.

“Pension funds increasingly look to align their investments with the values of their members and society at large,” he said. “However, we are disappointed the amendment to remove the delegated acts in IORP II from the proposal was narrowly defeated.”

PensionsEurope is still to discuss the result of the ECON vote with its members.

The pension fund bodies also argued against changes to IORP II as the directive was still under implementation – member states have until mid-January to transpose it into national law.

The directive includes new requirements related to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors that have yet to be put into practice and evaluated.

However, Eleni Choidas, EU policy manager at ShareAction, a London-based responsible investment advocacy group, said it was “very pleased that the Commission has been empowered to adopt delegated acts on IORP II”.

“With this empowerment, the Commission has received a tall order to ensure that all pension savers have their long-term interests taken into account by their trustees, and to ensure their money is invested sustainably,” she added.

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