International

I have been given the task by the European Parliament of writing an official 'Opinion' on a report from the European Commission which concerns our pensions. Tomorrow, the first 'exchange of views' on the issue takes place in the EP Internal Market Committee, and I will be taking a clear position against the Commission's attempts to hand our pensions over to the market, and in favour not of a new playground for insurance companies, but a solid system based on solidarity between young and old. And against, moreover, an infringement of the power to regulate these matters at the national level.

The Commission frankly admits that Brussels has no competence to rule on pensions. In such cases, however, the member states may nevertheless 'coordinate' their policies. This involves open discussions, from which may emerge agreements, though in principle the member states would remain free to do whatever they want to. With an eye to such 'coordination' the Commission produced, earlier in the year, a 'green paper', the name (taken from the British system) given to a consultation document to which anyone can react, including the European Parliament, which is why a discussion over our pension rights has broken out here.

The Commission is not all that impressed by state pensions – known in the Netherlands as the AOW – or by occupational pensions at the level of the sector or individual firm. It is most interested in pensions as individual insurances, which it wants to see negotiated via a free European market, offering new opportunities to the insurance companies. I will be taking a firm position against this. Young people, and people on low wages, are often inclined to forget about their pension, which leads to their having almost no income after retirement. This is why in the Netherlands we make basic provision in the form of the AOW, to which everyone contributes via the deduction of premiums which are paid to the state. In addition, we have occupational pensions organised per sector. For these every worker and every employer pays a premium. Taken together these form a solid system based on mutual solidarity. Unfortunately for the insurance companies this means that under normal circumstances their supplementary products aren't needed and the market for them in the Netherlands is not very large. Ideas from Brussels that seek to overturn this principle and turn the clock back to a time before the AOW was introduced – by a progressive government which was in power just after the war – I will resist with all the force I can muster. Hands off our pensions!