These documents call very directly for the first pillar to be reconsidered, and also call for an automatic increase in the legal retirement age based on life expectancy. Parliament, in its amended and adopted draft report, is in favour of the following: a fundamental role for the first pillar in relation to pensions, which provides a better guarantee of solidarity, with a complementary role for the other pillars, including bringing a second pillar into general use; giving more attention to increasing the actual age of retirement as well as employment levels, in particular, those of older people, rather than an automatic and fatalistic i ...[+++]ncrease in the legal age; a definition of the criteria for enabling a guaranteed minimal adequate pension to be introduced in the Member States; a strengthened role for social partners in defining and implementing all pension reforms in Europe; and the abolition of disparities between men and women in relation to pensions, which is linked to the discrimination of which Mrs Matera reminded us.

From the suggestions made with regard to carrying out such a revision, the majority of members were in favour of: i) extending the time-limit of one year for bringing return proceedings and the time-limit of two months for the competent authorities of the requesting Member State to check the nature of the cultural object found in another Member State, ii) clarifying certain provisions of the Directive to render its application easier, for example indicating the common criteria for making interpretation of the concept of "due care and attention" more uniform with regard to compensation of the possessor, or iii) extending the time-limit for drawing up reports on the Di ...[+++]rective.

4. In the case of credit agreements containing clauses allowing variations in the borrowing rate and, where applicable, charges contained in the annual percentage rate of charge but unquantifiable at the time of calculation, the annual percentage rate of charge shall be calculated on the assumption that the borrowing rate and other charges will remain fixed in relation to the initial level and will remain applicable until the end of the credit agreement.

In seeking to increase the effective retirement age, in wishing to extend time at work, in proposing even to replace pay-as-you-go pension schemes with funded pension provision, the rapporteur vindicates and harmonises the attacks on workers.

The actual rate of recovery rose from 2% in Report B94 to 12% in Report B98, and the proportion of cases out of time dropped sharply from 12% to 4%.

Finally, some Member States would like the frequency of the report changed. Ireland is in favour of an annual report whereas Denmark and Belgium suggest extending the reporting period to five or even ten years.