The EU yesterday denied there was an attempt to impose a common retirement age on all its member states, saying it was Italy that was being asked to raise the age to 67.
The Italian government is under pressure to adopt the measure by other EU leaders. But a spokesman for EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy yesterday denied this was a general EU policy applicable to all its member states, as declared by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi following last Sunday’s crisis summit in Brussels.
“While confirming that we are expecting a commitment from Italy to raise the retirement age to 67 years, this is only one of the many commitments we are expecting from Italy to make sure that it will avoid a similar crisis to Greece,” the spokesman told The Times.
“Malta was given different recommendations and raising the retirement age is not one of them,” he insisted.
Malta’s retirement age was raised to 65 in the 2006 pensions reform. A spokesman for the Maltese government said Malta had no plans to push it further up, even though pension reform is one of the recommendations the EU made to Malta last June to strengthen the long-term sustainability of the island’s economy.
“We have already increased the pensionable retirement age from 61 to a maximum of 65 years,” the government spokesman said. “The EU is not asking us to push this further. We believe that for the next 20 years, Malta’s retirement age, when compared to its demographic trend and life expectancy, is adequate.”
During Sunday’s summit, aimed at agreeing a comprehensive package to stem the euro crisis, Italy was singled out as Europe’s “sick man” and was asked to come back to this evening’s follow-up summit with a list of commitments on reforms.
Among the EU’s recommendations to Malta last June – to be implemented by the end of 2012 as part of a new European governance structure – was the stepping up of its pension reform with the possibility of accelerating the introduction of the mandatory second pillar pension.
Despite this recommendation and a report by the Pensions Task Force suggesting the introduction of a second pillar pension for those under 45 as from this year, the government says it needs some time to introduce this measure.
Business organisations are against the introduction of the second pillar at this point, particularly due to the economic crisis.
This evening’s summits in Brussels, one involving all 27 EU leaders and the other at the 17-member eurozone level, will be attended by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and should be the last in a series of high-level marathon meetings.
The aim is to formulate a common strategy to solve the eurozone crisis.
EU leaders are expected to agree on a managed default – a “hair-cut” of part of Greece’s debt – and a second bailout package for Athens, a programme for the recapitalisation of the European banking system and a plan to boost the firepower of the euro area’s rescue fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).