European parliamentarians have been urged not to back any draft of the revised IORP Directive requiring full funding of pension fund liabilities; ahead of a crucial vote to decide the chamber's final negotiating position. The call comes ahead of a vote by the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), which is set to approve the final draft of rapporteur Brian Hayes's report on the revised Directive.
Hayes's draft report proposed the introduction of full funding off the sector as a whole when "a new or an additional scheme" was launched, rather than on an ongoing basis, as with cross-border IORPs.
After introducing several amendments, he did away with worries over more potential revisions by removing the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority's ability to draft any further technical standards.
The EP's ECON Committee is set to vote on Hayes's report on 25 January, following which a compromise draft of the Directive is set to be decided in negotiations among the Commission, Parliament and member States.
Neil Carberry, director of employment, skills and public services at the CBI said that "any regulation which hurts employers' financial capacity to stand by their pension promises only increases the likelihood of a scheme to enter into pension scheme welfare systems and risks a reduction in the income savers receive in retirement." He added: "a pension is a benefit, created and guaranteed by the employer in recognition of service," he said. "It is not an insurance policy purchased on the open market that therefore needs to be regulated like a financial product."
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