UKRAINE - The Ukrainian ministry of labour and social policy is calling for a EU-wide, paritarian pension system for Ukrainian migrant workers, IPE has learnt.

Mikhailo Papiyev, the Ukraine's minister of labour and social policy, voiced the ideas for a new European pension system for legal migrant workers from the Ukraine during a visit last month to the EU's Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

Sergiy Savchuk, of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), who lead the delegation's visit to the EESC, told IPE today: "His idea is for the many migrant workers who have migrated to the EU and who have worked there for some years; their contributions to the social security system in the EU do not allow them to get a pension in the EU."

He continued: "Also, they have some years of contribution to the Ukrainian social security system, which also does not allow them to get any pension."

According to Savchuk, Papiyev has put forward proposals to combine these records of various contributions between the Ukraine and the EU, in order to enable the migrant workers to build up a  pension.

There is no official figure on the number of Ukrainian migrant workers in the EU, but Savchuk estimates there are around 2.5m workers, mainly concentrated in Spain, Italy and Portugal, across other EU countries.

Raphael Delfiore of the EESC told IPE the proposals are in a very early stage and no concrete plans have been made yet to implement such a new system, though he added the Ukraine and the EESC would create a group to discuss various proposals.

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