The potential of the labour market and of the design of pension systems must be assessed, against their capacity to ensure the accrual of effective and adequate benefits and to contribute to their fiscal sustainability. This is crucial for an ambitious implementation of the Recommendation on access to social protection and reform the national pension systems accordingly.
Pension systems have been progressively reformed, under the pressure of the Country Specific Recommendations, shifting from pay-as-you-go towards defined contribution and fully-funded logics, whereas redistributive systems are considered as not sustainable any longer, because of the ageing of the population in Europe.
In the trade union assessment, these trends seem to have shifted the responsibility to ensure the right to adequate pensions of an ageing population from MS and national governments onto the individuals and their capacity to accrue contributions for their future pensions.
The expert study provides insights on the design of national social protection contribution systems across Europe, focusing on their capacity to support adequate and effective pensions, as well as their sustainability, in times of demographic change.