The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called for an EU-level committee to monitor pension measures and assess their impact on retirement incomes, inequality and poverty.
The proposed committee would involve EU member states, social partners, civil society organisations and relevant authorities, with a remit to track progress towards increasing retirement incomes and mitigating inequality and poverty.
The European Commission should provide the committee with information and impact assessments to analyse how expanding supplementary pension systems affects key social indicators, according to a proposal presented by Maria del Carmen Barrera Chamorro, an EESC member, at the European Forum on Pension Communication: Bridging Borders 2026 in Brussels this week.
The committee should also assess the potential indirect effects of each pension scheme on other parts of the pension system.
Its findings should inform future reforms and feed into the European Semester and the Council’s work, while future regulatory changes and proposals from the Commission should take its work into account.
The proposal forms part of the EESC’s emphasis on participatory governance and the need for accurate, comparable data to assess pension reforms from a holistic perspective, supported by appropriate impact assessments and the involvement of social partners and industry.
The EESC identifies transparency and access to reliable information as prerequisites for trust in pension systems, alongside equality, active participation in governance and financial literacy.
