The reform have to be accredited as quickly as doable to unlock the fourth tranche of European funds that can be requested earlier than the summer timeBrussels questioned whether or not the measures adopted to this point would assure the sustainability of the pension systemIt can be essential to see if there may be an settlement with social brokers and what help the pension system may have Government in Congress to validate this subsequent decree legislation
It already appears a matter of days. The delayed final a part of the pension reform can be virtually able to be accredited by the Council of Ministers. “We anticipate it to shut as quickly as subsequent week,” mentioned a supply conversant in the negotiations. Now the query is whether or not the Government will get the help of the social brokers, whom it has summoned this Friday to clarify the proposal. It is concerning the closure “of the whole sustainability of the system”, superior the minister José Luis Escrivá with out going into extra particulars. Late this Thursday, TVE and Servimedia, citing socialist sources, reported an settlement between PSOE and Podemos on this matter.
This time every little thing was extra difficult. The Executive needed to persuade the European Commission that the adjustments assured the sustainability of the system. Because? Because one of many circumstances for receiving European support after the covid was to concentrate to the suggestions made by the Commission in its studies earlier than the pandemic broke out. And one of many everlasting worries of Brussels about Spain was exactly the pension system.
Component 30 included the dedication to make adjustments to make sure its sustainability, which have been damaged down over time into completely different reforms. Now, the final leg was pending. After many exchanges of numbers, assumptions and future simulations, the top of Social Security introduced the settlement with Brussels. “We are virtually reaching an settlement with the Commission,” Escrivá assured this Thursday. This pact was elementary in view of the request for the following tranche of support: a further 10,000 million euros that can be requested in some unspecified time in the future on this first semester.
The basic secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, requested the Government this Thursday to convene the pensions desk once more when it had ample parliamentary help to ensure the approval of the brand new decree legislation.
“We need the Government to come back to the desk with this fairly superior challenge, in what parameters the European Union strikes and the parliamentary majority itself that it has to have to hold out the legislative reform,” mentioned Álvarez in an informative assembly of ‘El Mundo ‘.
The labor reform, which unions and employers blessed, went forward in Congress because of the error of a Popular Party deputy when voting. The Executive wished in any respect prices to keep away from the identical factor taking place once more with pensions. Especially when European funds rely on the reform. For weeks the delay has been justified – the challenge ought to have been closed final yr – because of the problem of getting to barter with all of the events without delay: Brussels, political events and social brokers. The order on this case is related: with out the primary two helps, the challenge falls.
What has been finished to make sure sustainability?
On January 1, the brand new Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) entered into drive. A sort of spill that meant paying 0.6% in social contributions to fill the so-called ‘pension piggy financial institution’. The thought: that there can be a fund to attract from when the waves of child growth retirees arrived. Over the following twenty-five years the system goes to be below a number of strain. Brussels has been questioning the MEI mechanism for months. He doubted that it could be sufficient to face the spending that’s coming -more so if we take note of the price of revaluing pensions with inflation now every year-.
The Government’s response, that within the occasion that the MEI was inadequate, it could be adjusted. But this system didn’t persuade the Commission, which most popular a extra computerized rule, such because the sustainability issue accredited by the PP – and later repealed by the present Executive – and which linked the quantity of pensions to life expectancy. For Escrivá this concept was “an aberration” and that’s the reason they eradicated it.
What else does this new reform ponder?
For this final a part of the pensions, the dedication was made to adapt the pension calculation interval “to satisfy the fact of more and more fragmented labor trajectories.” These gaps in contributions penalize some staff in relation to retiring, in line with the Government. The impact of extending the computation interval to calculate the pension, usually, supposes a decrease quantity.
Escrivá insisted that the impact can be impartial for the overwhelming majority of staff. However, unions and employers have been suspicious of these calculations. “The ministry doesn’t share its numbers with us. How it reaches that conclusion, with what knowledge, we have no idea,” sources commented within the negotiation. This level is harder to have the help of the unions.
The final change that the ministry wished to introduce was concerning the ceilings that apply to each social contributions (these used to pay pensions) and to the pensions themselves (the utmost is capped). In this case, those that are most suspicious of the Government’s concepts are the businessmen as a result of the best burden of paying these contributions falls on them.