“European citizens can henceforth change their jobs and country of residence without losing their own pension rights accrued under the various national regimes”. That’s the slogan adopted by Brussels to sum up the content of the proposed Directive “Transferability of pension rights”, presented by the European Commission last week with the objective of putting an end to the total or partial loss of pension rights in the event of a change of job or country or residence. The measure which is estimated to affect overall one European worker out of every three comes a few months ahead of the inauguration of the European Year of Worker Mobility in 2006. During a press conference, the European Commissioner responsible for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities Vladimir Spidla emphasized that “if we wish workers to be mobile and flexible, we cannot penalize them if they change their job: the right to pension must be able to be transferred in full. This directive is long overdue”. For further info: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/social_protection/pensions_fr.htm
