The Belgian EU Presidency conference (6-8 September, Liège) contributed to the debate on the adequacy of pensions and social benefits across European countries.

It brought together many of the key actors with some prominent scholars and stakeholders. European Centre's Asghar Zaidi made a presentation 'Sustainability and adequacy of pensions in EU countries: A cross-national perspective'.

His presentation made the case that the financial sustainability challenges that EU countries face are well documented, but the impact of policy reforms on the structure of future pension systems and on incomes of future retirees is less clearly delineated. Similarly, the need for sustained policy remedies to the current economic and fiscal crises is widely recognised, yet the effects of actions taken now on the nature of future social challenges arising are masked. The presentation and the accompanying paper addressed these issues and emphasized the need for policy-makers to be aware of the impacts of decisions on sustainability issues and on fiscal consolidation upon pension systems’ structures and on pension income adequacy for future pensioners.

Paper by Asghar Zaidi based upon the presentation:

http://www.euro.centre.org/detail.php?xml_id=1761 (bottom of the page)