EUROPE – The European Commission is facing a series of questions about the poor transposition of the occupational pension directive from the European Parliament.

MEPs Ieke van den Burg and Othmar Karas will quiz the Commission on behalf of the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs at a plenary session in November.

They are concerned over internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy’s statement last month that only nine out of 25 EU member states have complied with the directive, Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision.

“The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs is concerned and wants to know the reasons for such a poor record of implementation,” the question text reads.

IPE reported in June that van den Burg and Karas - at the heart of the pensions debate at the Parliament - would confront the Commission over the matter.

Van den Burg is chair of the European Parliamentary Pensions Forum while Karas was the original rapporteur for the directive to the Parliament.

They ask what action the Commission is going to take against member states that fail to comply. And they question the role and mandate of CEIOPS, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors.

They ask whether the form of the directive has led to different interpretations. And they seek to know to what extent the adoption of quantitative investment rules have created obstacles to cross-border provision.

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