EUROPE – Fifteen European Union member states have yet to fully notify the Commission about the transposition of the directive on occupational pension funds into national legislation – almost four months after the deadline.

According to a ‘state-of-play’ listing of Financial Services Action Plan directives on the EU website, the European Commission has received and checked just 10 states’ transposition of Directive 2003/41/EC on Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision.

It has received no notification at all from 10 states, with partial notification from a further five. The deadline for the measure was September 23 last year.

The pension directive is just one of several directives that are falling behind in their implementation.

“Transposition, implementation and enforcement of financial services directives by member states is now the core issue,” the Commission states. It says many states have built up “considerable backlogs”.

“In a union of 25, and soon 27, it is essential that member states do not jeopardise the effective working of the Internal Market through delayed transposition and implementation of these key directives which facilitate pan-EU access for all EU companies and citizens,” the Commission says.

No notification: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden.

Partial notification: Spain, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia, UK.

Notification received: Austria, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Poland.