EFR paper Pan-European Pension Plans

26 June 2007

The EFR issued a paper Pan-European Pension Plans which identifies the differences between national legislations affecting the creation of a single market for retirement savings and shows how the obstacles could be overcome to create a framework for truly European products.

The EFR further explores its idea of pan-European Pension Plans (EPP) which would be a framework for pan-European voluntary pension savings providing more flexibility and choice for European consumers than existing products today. Products developed under this EPP-framework would be portable, offer the opportunity of asset pooling and diversification of the consumers’ benefits. In addition, those products would increase competition and offer pension solutions across Europe.

A framework for EPP products would have the following characteristics:

robust consumer protection rules based on the best rules and/or practices throughout Europe,

shared key characteristics of private pension plans in Member States,

respect of existing national legislation (civil, labour, and social laws) to a wide extent, and

reuse of existing EU legislation as far as possible.

Press release
Executive Summary
Full paper

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