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Brian Hayes, an Irish MEP in the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), was speaking at an Economic and Monetary Affairs committee hearing on the IORP Directive. The parliamentarian is expected to submit his report on the Directive before the summer, but in speaking to fellow MEPs, said reinstating the issue of solvency for pension schemes had no support. Hayes also said the requirement for cross-border schemes to be fully funded would need to be “seriously looked at”, should the EU strive for more than the 86 funds created since the original IORP Directive.
Questions around solvency requirements were also raised by MEPs during the session with Hayes and industry representatives, including PensionsEurope chairman Joanne Segars, Clifford Chance pensions lawyer Hans van Meerten and aba chief executive Klaus Stiefermann. Hayes said the Commission and parliamentarians should be “unapologetic” for using the IORP Directive to create a “gold standard” of pensions regulation across the European Union, but stressed he was in favour of leaving implementation to member states.
He said: “Rather than seeing this piece of legislation as an imposition, we really should be unapologetic in looking for a gold standard of protection across the board.
If we allow member state implementation we will not cut across the excellent provisions currently in place, but ensure for other countries and schemes joining, that the standard is in place.” Hayes also said he has seen broad support for the Directive across both the Union and the industry, and said the updates and consolidation of the legislation was “good house keeping”. “Colleagues have alluded to the solvency requirements, but the fact is the issue is off the agenda and there is no support for putting it back on,” he said. “It is crucially important there is a need for this legislation consolidation and a need to get this right.”
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