The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations, Salaried Employees’ and Civil
Servants Confederation, The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, The Confederation of
Danish Employers, Local Government in Denmark, Confederation of Danish Employers’
Associations in Agriculture, Danish Regions
The Social Partners joint view on the proposal for a directive
on improving the portability of supplementary pension rights.
Introduction
The social partners in Denmark endorse the main intention of the proposal which is facilitating
cross-border portability of supplementary pensions in the European Union.
Labour mobility is an important element of the Danish Flexicurity-system and workers’ free
movement is a key element of the EU internal market. The Danish Social Partners find that
lowering obstacles to labour mobility in the area of supplementary pensions is part of an important
feature of fostering workers’ free movement within the EU.
While agreeing on the overall purpose of the proposal the Social Partners in Denmark view the EU
Commissions proposal for a directive on improving the portability of supplementary pension rights
with serious concern.
The Danish Social Partners recommend the articles on transferability in the draft directive to be
changed to avoid undermining of the collective features of the Danish supplementary pensions
schemes. If this is not done the Danish social partners prefer that the directive focus on securing
acquired rights.
In the view of the social partners the current draft proposal will fundamentally change the Danish
Labour Market Pensions System – a system that has been built up over the last 100 years by the
social partners. The Danish Pension System received the following comments in the latest review
carried out by the European Commission:
“The strategy for ensuring adequacy and financial sustainability of pension provision seems
appropriate. The reforms needed to achieve the adequacy and solidarity objectives have
been put in place over the last decade with support from a broad majority in Parliament. A
budget policy leading to quick debt reduction has already been sustained for some years and
all major parties support the continuation of this policy until 2010, when the public debt will
have been largely eliminated. A further rise in employment will be difficult to achieve in
view of the limited labour force reserves, but it is not implausible given Denmark's proven
track record in employment. In particular, the incentives for older workers to defer their
retirement could be further strengthened.
In sum the pension system seems to be financially sustainable in the long term under present
policies with a fairly equitable sharing of the burden between generations. Building up
occupational pensions will increase replacement rates in the future and thereby alleviate
potential pressure for increases in public pension rates. Yet, the sustainability calculations
hinge critically on maintaining large surpluses in public finances during this decade. Further
labour market reforms would seem to be needed to ensure the assumed increase in the
labour supply, which in turn is needed for ensuring the debt reduction strategy necessary for
financial sustainability.”