EUROPE - The European Monetary Affairs Committee (EMAC) has announced that it is to vote on and adopt the Karas report on the directive occupational pension provision on June 19.

The adoption of the rapporteur’s findings by EMAC will be the final hearing on the directive before it is put to the plenary of the Parliament for final voting later in the year.

The vote, which is scheduled for 4pm, will almost certainly be a heated one.
Last month, Wilfried Kuckelkorn, the European socialist group rapporteur on the pensions directive put forward his amendments to Austrian MEP and overall parliament rapporteur, Othmar Karas, backing the inclusion of full biometric cover in the legislation.

Karas himself is attempting to chart a middle ground by arguing that institutions should be required to offer biometrical risk cover as an option and indicate the relevant costs clearly. Cover, he says, could then be provided by the institution itself or via an outside insurance company.

Kuckelkorn is also backing the inclusion of life insurance companies within the directive; a subject that has raised hackles in the European pensions arena.