NAPF welcomes European Parliament's note of caution on EC Green Paper
16 February 2011
Commenting on the European Parliament’s vote today on the EC Green Paper on pensions, Joanne Segars, Chief Executive of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), said:
“We welcome the European Parliament’s view that any new EU-level protection regime for pensions must be tailored to the distinctive, long-term nature of pensions.
“The last thing we need is to make pensions more expensive by introducing new rules based on the Solvency II regime. Such rules would work against what the European Commission is trying to achieve and would be damaging to pensions and individuals’ retirement incomes. So it was good to see MEPs stressing the need for a thorough cost-benefit analysis before any action is taken.
“British MEPs have removed some of the more damaging conclusions from earlier versions of the Parliament’s report. But the debate about EU action on pensions will continue. We now wait to see how the European Commission will take its proposals forward. They must take careful note of the Parliament’s report.”
In November 2010, the NAPF and other key stakeholders, including the CBI, the TUC and ICAEW, voiced their opposition to EU plans to introduce a new solvency regime for pension funds. According to them, these proposals risked undermining Britain’s pension provision rather than strengthening it.
Notes to Editors:
1) Joanne Segars is available for interview.
2) The NAPF is the leading voice of workplace pensions in the UK. We speak for 1,200 pension schemes with some 15 million members and assets of around £800 billion. NAPF members also include over 400 businesses providing essential services to the pensions sector.
Contact:
Paul Platt, Head of Media and PR, NAPF, 020 7601 1717 or 07917 506 683, [email protected]
Christian Zarro, Press Officer, NAPF, 020 7601 1718 or 07825 171 446, [email protected]