Pension Review Group | PRG [Abbr.]

Pension Review Group

Pension Process Task Force

Secretariat Study Group on the Warsaw System [ Secretariat Study Group on the modernization of the Warsaw System ]

This Directive should apply to all supplementary pension schemes established in accordance with national law and practice that offer supplementary pensions for workers, such as group insurance contracts, pay-as-you-go schemes agreed by one or more branches or sectors, funded schemes or pension promises backed by book reserves, or any collective or other comparable arrangement.

106. Recalls the conclusions of an independent actuarial valuation of the voluntary pension scheme commissioned by Parliament that (i) the cash flow income was sufficient to finance pension payments until 2015 and that thereafter it would be necessary to begin realising assets in order to pay the pensions due; and (ii) provided the assumptions used by the scheme's actuary were proved correct, at the termination date the fund will be in surplus; notes that the Secretary-General has commissioned an updated actuarial study examining the position following the recent financial/banking crisis;

(14a) The Court of Justice has consistently held that the Barber Protocol does not affect the right to join an occupational pension scheme and that the limitation of the effects in time of the judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-262/88 Barber v Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Group does not apply to the right to join an occupational pension scheme; the Court has also ruled that the national rules relating to time-limits f ...[+++]or bringing actions under national law may be relied on against workers who assert their right to join an occupational pension scheme, provided that they are not less favourable for that type of action than for similar actions of a domestic nature and that they do not render the exercise of rights conferred by Community law impossible in practice; the Court has also pointed out that the fact that a worker can claim retroactively to join an occupational pension scheme does not allow the worker to avoid paying the contributions relating to the period of membership concerned.

(5) UNDERLINES that the Social Protection Committee, where appropriate in cooperation with the Employment Committee and the Economic Policy Committee, should provide substantial support to the Council (EPSCO), in particular by carrying out specific studies focusing on common challenges for pension systems.