"We must enable workers to freely move across the European Union without having to give up on important pension rights": this is the belief of Vladimir Spidla, EU Commissioner for labour and welfare, who submitted today a few comments from the EU Executive in the light of two independent surveys about social security. "Pulling down barriers against workers’ mobility" in the old continent "is one of the key elements of the growth and employment strategy and is an example of flexicurity". The surveys the EU Commission refers to have been conducted by Hewitt Associates and the Institut supérieur du travail of Louvain. They "confirm that the pension system keeps getting in the way of the workers’ free mobility in the EU". Spidla explains that the conclusions drawn by the two institutes "look forward to taking some common action to improve workers’ access to additional pension systems when they change jobs or go to some other member state to work". In this respect, last October Barroso’s Executive submitted a draft directive "which has been included in the work plan of the Slovenian presidency" of the EU.
