Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-12-Speech-3-274"
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"en.20000412.10.3-274"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, safeguarding pensions is an extremely important task facing our age. We are conscious of the fact that numerous pension schemes in the various Member States, based on the intergeneration compact, are encountering ever-increasing difficulties. That is why the issue of supplementary pensions has become so very important, and that is what we are discussing this evening. When it comes to supplementary pensions and pension funds, our first priority in regulatory terms is to ensure that the rules governing the Common Market are upheld, and that no additional restrictions to the free movement of persons within the European Community are created, as is often the case.
We are aware that this is still the case today for many social security systems, and we must avoid the possibility of similar restrictions to the free movement of persons arising in this new sphere as well. That is why certain common minimum provisions need to be put in place here. We need certain minimum regulations for the protection of financial investments, and we anticipate that suitable proposals will be drafted and improved on to this end.
The second quite crucial issue is that of tax breaks, this being possible at three different stages: at the paying-in stage, then afterwards on the interest that is paid, and then at the payout stage. The arrangements for this vary from one Member State to another, and if we want these funds to be compatible throughout the European Community then we are going to have to produce common provisions. This is not going to be a piece of cake. We all know that taxation is subject to the unanimity principle, but this is one of the fundamental demands we have to make.
I now come to the crunch question of this debate, namely what are pensions? What are pension funds? I have to say, we are still only halfway through the debate where this is concerned. We have not reached a conclusive opinion within our Group either. There is only one thing I can say with certainty: biometric risks must play a part in this overall assessment in some respect. In other words, if we do not take biometric risks into account, then it will not be possible to address the other issues I have mentioned. But we are quite deliberately proposing an open style of wording, as chosen by Mr Ferri for the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market in points 7 and 8. I believe this kind of wording will attract the broadest consensus here, and therefore enable us to make progress, for what matters most is that the directives are now put forward to us. I believe it will not be possible to answer some of the questions we are discussing today until we can assess them in the light of the Commission’s proposals, the actual draft directives, that is."@en1
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