\u20ac10 trillion in bank deposits<\/a> across the bloc to support strategic EU priorities \u2013 in particular defence and security and the digital and green transitions.<\/p>\n\u201cSupplementary pensions, such as occupational and personal pension schemes, help Europeans maintain their standard of living and strengthen their economic resilience,\u201d European Commissioner for financial services Maria Lu\u00eds Albuquerque told a press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n
However, she also stressed that these supplementary schemes are not intended to replace state-funded ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are still the backbone of the retirement systems across all member states, and they will remain so,\u201d Albuquerque said.<\/p>\n
Shifting the burden<\/p>\n
State pensions in most EU countries operate on a pay-as-you-go basis, meaning current workers finance current retirees. <\/p>\n
With the working-age population shrinking and non-standard employment on the rise, citizens in several member states lack guarantees of securing an adequate pension in the future, particularly women. The gender pension gap \u2013 the difference in average pension income between men and women \u2013 now stands at 24.5%.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to encourage more people to save for their retirement and make it easier for them to do so,\u201d Albuquerque said, referring to the Commission\u2019s efforts to increase uptake of supplementary pension products.<\/p>\n
The Commissioner argued that the role of occupational and personal pension schemes remains \u201ctoo limited\u201d and uneven across the bloc.<\/p>\n
Only 20% of Europeans participate in occupational schemes, and just 18% hold a personal pension product, according to the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that right now it is not easy for Europeans to understand what they will be entitled to when they retire,\u201d Albuquerque said.<\/p>\n
On top of the lack of clear information, the Commission has identified another barrier: the so-called \u201cprocrastination effect\u201d. <\/p>\n
At a briefing in Brussels, an EU official told reporters that people tend to delay tasks they do not understand \u2013 including pension planning. \u201cThat’s what we also see with pensions and people,” he said.<\/p>\n
To address this, the Commission recommends that national governments provide online tools and tracking systems to help citizens understand projected benefits, how much they have saved, and the overall state of their pensions.<\/p>\n
The Commission is also encouraging the introduction of auto-enrolment, meaning workers would be automatically enrolled in supplementary pension schemes but free to opt out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAuto-enrolment helps overcome the natural tendency to delay decisions about retirement, ensuring more people begin saving earlier and more consistently while fully respecting individual choice,\u201d Albuquerque said. <\/p>\n
Some member states already use this system, and the Commission says the evidence indicates that individuals tend to remain enrolled once included.<\/p>\n
However, these measures are only recommendations, as the EU has limited competence in the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can’t do all from Brussels, but there are a lot of things that are in the power of the member states,\u201d the same EU official said. \u201cIt is for the member states to implement the recommendations, and this has to be a collaborative process with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recommendations form part of a broader plan unveiled in March known as the Savings and Investments Union, which is designed to channel up to \u20ac10 trillion in bank deposits into strategic EU investments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 20\/11\/2025 – 13:40 GMT+1 The European Union is urging its member states to boost private pension…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,21752,133,2512,133410,131,132,5551],"class_list":{"0":"post-296295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-european-commission","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-investment","14":"tag-maria-luis-albuquerque","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-savings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}