PENSIONS : PROGRESS ON PORTABILITY OF PENSIONS IN THE OFFING.

• Position: Brief article

Speaking at the informal Employment Council in Berlin on 18 and 19 January, Germany's Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs Franz Muntefering described the portability of pensions as "a useful mechanism". It now seems likely that progress can be made on the directive on the portability of pensions. "We can easily live with what was started by the Finnish Presidency,"asaid Muntefering. This amounts to a dramatic change in attitude, given that Germany and the Netherlands were the two countries that were most inclined to drag their feet on the issue.

The compromise, discussed at the end of the Finnish EU Presidency, removes transferability of pension rights and only keeps two chapters of the text: access to the right to supplementary pensions for newcomers and equality of treatment for dormant rights. This position was accepted by the European Commission. Several points, however, still require further discussion: the scope of the directive (certain...