On 15 April, the European Parliament adopted on plenary the directive on supplementary pension rights. According to the directive, a maximum „vesting period“, a period of membership of the scheme needed for a person to keep his supplementary pension entitlements, will be 3 years and these entitlements will be guaranteed, after 3 years, also for a person moving to a different Member State. This constitutes, according to the MEPs, another step in favor of workers´ mobility. Pension policies for workers moving to a different Member State have been coordinated for a long time in the European Union, but the guarantees for workers were only in place for the state-run pension schemes. Occupational schemes, widely used in some Member States, were not covered. The area is quite politically sensitive, so in the beginning of the procedure, after Commission proposal in 2005, the directive had to be adopted by the Council unanimously. After the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the policy area moved to the Ordinary legislation procedure and new negotiations of the MEPs and Member States´ representatives started. Last week, the act was adopted in 2nd reading by the Parliament and hereby comes into force. Member States will have 4 years to transpose the directive into their respective national legislations.

For more, click here and here.