PENSIONS: SOCIAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE DEBATES MODERNISATION OF PENSION SCHEMES.

After receiving over 200 amendments to his report, Mr Fatuzzo found a compromise text aimed at reaching three goals mainly:- maintaining the same quality of life for a worker even after his or her retirement;- adjusting pension schemes to worker mobility (or "worker instability" as Mr Fatuzzo calls it);- achieving reaching financial stability, i.e. maintaining Member States' ability to finance pension schemes. Member States are therefore required to prepare national strategies to be presented to the Council.The June 2001 Gothenburg European Council decided to address the challenge of providing safe and sustainable pensions through the "open method of co-ordination" involving all the Member States, i.e. an EU contribution to a solution to the pensions problem using national strategies (agreeing on common objectives, seeking and securing a public consensus on reforms, exchanging experience based on good practice and innovative approaches, and determining indicators to measure progress achieved).Member States currently tackle the pensions problem via three different kinds of schemes, namely through the State budget (income tax, etc.), compulsory or voluntary...