Government to reveal stance on pension reforms by end of April

The government will present its views on a looming pension reform before the summer and possibly already by the end of April, according to Social Security Minister Martine Deprez who has set out a road map for the hotly anticipated bill.

Once the position is clarified a “final public event” will take place before the summer. Over the summer, the coalition government will prepare the first legislative texts. In the fall, the government plans to present and discuss these texts with the social partners – trade unions and employer representatives.

The minister did not comment on the various view points of different parties that were discussed in parliament on Wednesday.

The next step in the pensions debate will be meetings of expert groups. The first of these meetings is to take place on Friday where “adaptability” of the pensions system will be discussed. It is going to focus on “how the pension system can be designed to be flexible and personalised in order to meet the realities of people’s lives”, according to the schwätzmat.lu platform – which has been used in the consultative process of the reform.

Among other things, experts will discuss “whether individual options for retirement age or contribution models make sense”.

The second of the expert group meetings will take place on 4 April and the topic will be “fairness.” The aim is to ensure that the pension system continues to be based on “intergenerational fairness” and that vulnerable groups are protected from poverty in old age. It also seeks to ensure that sources of funds for the pension system are diversified.

The last expert group will meet on 24 April. This will address the sustainability of the system, with the objective being to promote the financial stability of the pension system.

The experts include trade unions OGBL, LCGB, CGFP, the UEL employer lobby as well as representatives of all political parties and their youth organisations.

Civil society groups are also invited. These include ACEL, Youth Red, Movement ecologique, GERO, and CNFL. The statistics body Statec and the research institute Liser will provide research and data inputs.

Waiting for the pension reform © Photo credit: Shutterstock

After the meetings, the findings will be summarised and documented. Then the government will speak for the first time and provide its views. This could happen by the end of April, Deprez said.

 (This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Translation and editing by Kabir Agarwal.