EUROPE – The European Federation for Retirement Provision says the correct transposition of the occupational pension fund directive could be undermined by a draft protocol by the EU’s committee of pensions supervisors.

It was responding to a draft put together by the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors in March on how a single licence for occupational pension funds would operate.

The EFRP said its basic message is that the draft “must be made consistent” with the directive on Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision – which is due to be transposed into national legislation in just over four months.

The EFRP said supervisors in member states “seem to have lost sight of the fact that the pension fund directive obliges them to implement the directive in a way which creates a genuine internal market for occupational pension”.

It said such a market was unlikely to emerge if the CEIOPS protocol is adopted is it stands. “In the EFRP's view it proposes unnecessary administrative hurdles and is based on an inappropriate interpretation of what the pension funds directive requires.”

“The EFRP urges CEIOPS to ensure operational effectiveness, efficiency and clarity.”

CEIOPS’ secretary general Alberto Corinti said the committee would consider the EFRP’s comments, though he wouldn’t comment on them specifically. “ We will follow our consultation procedure,” he told IPE, adding that it would take time to process the responses to the consultation.

He said CEIOPS hopes to have the final protocol ready in time for the first application of the directive, in September or October.

The committee’s 22-page draft saw a gradual harmonisation of European occupational pension supervision.

It said: "The protocol recognises that each home Member State Supervisory Authority will use a variety of supervisory methods and these will differ between Supervisory Authorities," CEIOPS said.

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