EUROPE – The EU Committee for Employment and Social Affairs has passed a resolution urging the European Commission to ensure the revised IORP Directive does not "jeopardise" pension fund investments.

The resolution is part of the ongoing dialogue between the Commission and the Parliament and comes in response to the White Paper on Pensions published by the Commission in February last year.

In its resolution, the committee backs comments made by the Commission in the white paper encouraging member states to introduce or maintain a multi-pillar pension system.

This approach would consist of a combination of public pensions in the first pillar; complementary pensions resulting from collective agreements, companies or national legislation in the second pillar; and private savings in the third pillar.

Dutch MEP Ria Oomen-Ruijten, who belongs to the European People's Party (EPP) and drafted the resolution, said: "We need safe and sustainable pensions in all member states now and in the future. This is important for both young and old people. We should act by safeguarding public pensions, encouraging longer working lives and improving and increasing contributions to supplementary pension schemes."

She added that EU coordination on pensions was necessary, "particularly for the functioning of the internal market, the EU2020 strategy and the stability and growth pact".

The Committee also voiced some concerns over the White Paper, saying it failed to "properly" address the importance of the first pillar.

"Even in a likely long-term, low-growth economic scenario, which would require member states to consolidate their budgets, safeguarding public pensions that at least guarantee decent living standards must remain a priority," the Committee said.

The Committee went on to highlight the need to guarantee pension funds' investment strategies, particularly in light of the financial crisis.

It urged the Commission to ensure pension funds' were not "jeopardised" by any possible changes to pensions legislation, particularly the IORP Directive.  

In recent years, the pensions industry has been deeply divided over the revised IORP Directive, and more especially the first pillar of the new framework, which focuses on capital requirements.

In a position paper on the first quantitative impact study (QIS) for the IORP II Directive, lobbying group PensionsEurope called on the Commission to shift its focus away from capital requirements towards improved governance and transparency.

Those requirements fall under pillars II and III of the new directive.  

The first QIS, launched by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) in October last year, aimed to assess the impact of the holistic balance sheet (HBS) on occupational pension schemes across Europe.

EIOPA developed the HBS to provide a common level of security for IORP benefits.

According to the Frankfurt-based authority, the HBS is to act as a supervisory tool and deal with diverse security mechanisms employed by IORPs across Europe.

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