The highest retirement age in Europe

Denmark to get ‘highest retirement age in Europe’

Denmark’s parliament adopted a law on Thursday raising the retirement age to 70 by 2040 from the current age of 67.

There was broad backing in parliament, with a total of 81 lawmakers voting in favour and 21 opposed, according to parliament’s website.

Denmark has since 2006 indexed the official retirement age to life expectancy and has revised it every five years.

It was already set to increase to 68 in 2030, and in 2035 it will go up to 69.

The new law now sets the retirement age at 70 for all people born after December 31st, 1970.

This will give Denmark the ‘highest retirement age in Europe’, according to the BBC. Perhaps that fact explains why the vote in parliament has been reported by international media.

The decision to raise the age of retirement to 70 in Denmark was known well in advance and there was no uncertainty about the outcome of the parliamentary vote. But the fact that the retirement age will eventually break 70 is not a non-issue for Danes, regardless of improving life expectancies.

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The trade union movement has expressed its discontent with the decision, with protests having recently taken place in Copenhagen. 

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People in blue-collar jobs in particular have raised concerns about working in demanding physical roles so late in life. 

Labour Day events at the start of this month also saw elevated focus on the retirement age, with Frederiksen fending off attacks from opposition parties on the issue.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democratic party has championed its ‘Arne Pension’ policy, which gives people in physically demanding jobs better options for earlier retirement.

But that is not going to be enough to prevent a new approach to the retirement age before another vote on raising it would be due in 2030.

Mette Frederiksen said last year that she wants to renegotiate the automatic mechanism, which depends on parliamentary approval, to raise the retirement age at five-year intervals.

“We no longer believe in the automatic way the retirement age is raised,” she said at the time.

“In our eyes, you can’t just keep saying people have to work for a year longer, so our clear statement is that the agreement must be renegotiated,” she said.

Frederiksen has not ruled out further increases to the retirement age beyond 70 in the future, but has said the rate of increase must be different from the current system.

A government commission proposed in 2022 a model that reduces the link between life expectancy and retirement age, so that increases in life expectancy do not automatically result in equivalent increases to pension eligibility.

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That model could be implemented without jeopardising the long-term sustainability of public finances, the commission said at the time.

The 2006 welfare agreement, upon which the retirement age is based, involved the two parties then in government, the Liberals (Venstre) and Conservatives, along with the Danish People’s Party, Social Liberals (Radikale Venstre) and Social Democrats, who are now led by Frederiksen.

It allows parliament to decide every five years on planned increases to the retirement age over the forthcoming 15 years.

Much of Denmark’s economic planning is set around the 2006 deal, because it gives a basis for calculations of labour supply.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce was among business organisations which last year expressed concerns about the potential dissolution of the 2006 agreement.

The organisation “does not understand why you would turn your back on an agreement that has secured a strong economy in Denmark,” director Brian Mikkelsen said.

“Denmark depends on a large and strong labour force with many good colleagues. The welfare pact is the reason that we will continue to have a strong economy and budget surplus in future, which allows politicians to invest in our common welfare,” he told the Ritzau news wire in a written comment.

Nevertheless, it’s possible that the recommendations made by the 2022 commission could be brought to the fore as the clock continues to tick.

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How badly does Denmark want to disrupt ECHR?

Denmark and eight other EU states, including Italy and Poland, published an open letter on Thursday urging a rethink of how the European Convention of Human Rights is interpreted, especially on migration.

The countries said they want “a new and open-minded conversation about the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights”, according to the text, released by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office.

“We have to restore the right balance,” the signatories said.

The convention, which came into force in 1953, covers the right to life; a ban on slavery, torture and degrading treatment; freedom of expression; a prohibition on discrimination; and the right to family life.

Its provisions have to be followed by all 46 countries signed up to the convention, which includes all 27 EU member states, with the European Court of Human Rights issuing binding rulings.

The letter urging a review of its application was made public following a meeting in Rome between Meloni and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, both of whom have taken a hardline stance on migration.

It was also signed by the leaders of Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic.

It might seem surprising to see Denmark line up as a forerunner on the EU stage when it comes to challenging the human rights convention, but the reasons for this can clearly be traced to immigration, and the Social Democrats’ pursuit of a hardline approach on this area, rather than on human rights.

While right wing parties in Denmark frequently have objections to the ECHR on immigration matters, so do the Social Democrats.

The party believes that the current legal framework is too restrictive when it comes to revoking the Danish citizenship of dual citizens convicted of crimes, and that it limits the ability to deport them.

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Earlier this year, meanwhile, the government decided to undertake a review of Denmark’s obligations and options relating to the ECHR and rulings from the European Court of Human Rights. The review will focus specifically on immigration.

“We have, together with other EU countries, succeeded in building support for a new approach to migration. A majority now backs new solutions, and several of the initiatives we have been pushing for are being translated into concrete legislation,” Frederiksen said in a statement from the PM’s office on Thursday.

The open letter from the nine EU nations marks the next step, she said.

“The interpretation of international conventions makes it too difficult to deport foreign criminals who have clearly shown they have no intention of being part of Danish society. In some cases, the conventions are currently being used to protect the criminals,” Frederiksen said.

Discussions are currently underway within the EU about making it easier to establish asylum centres outside Europe, Frederiksen also told broadcaster TV2, bringing up another of the Social Democrats’ longstanding migration policies.

With Meloni as a “primary partner” on migration policy, Frederiksen believes the issue can be “moved forward”, she said.