Pensions reform - now where to?
euinside, together with the Independent Pension Reform Council, initiates a public debate for a change in the pension model in Bulgaria. Obviously, the pension system is overloaded. It is also obvious that reforms have been again postponed. We are convinced that there is not time to waste and the important decisions about our future must be taken now. This is why, we invite you to join in with opinion and comments in our discussion about the future of the pension model. euinside and the Independent Pension Reform Council will present here the positions of leading economists as well as the lessons from the European and global experience, so that we could find together the best model for a reform in the Bulgarian pension system. So that it could finally happen.

Two bits of good news came for the new EU Member States on 30 May, when the European Commission presented its assessments of the countries` budgetary and economic policies and recommendations on them - the abrogation of the excessive deficit procedure against Bulgaria and the repeal of sanctions ...

The ECOFIN meeting on 15 May 2012 adopted the report of the European Commission and of the Ageing Working Group (AWG) at the Economic Policy Committee (EPC). To the purpose of this study Eurostat has presented a set of demographic projections on the population trends in Europe in the period 2010 ...

The number of pensioners in Europe will increase, but their pensions will be smaller. The number of workers will decrease and they will work more and longer. By 2060 there will only be two adults of working age for every pensioner. Currently the ratio is 4:1. This gloomy outlook is outlined in t ...

"You can imagine what it is every now and then to see in your post box a bill that you have to read and interpret and decide whether it should become a law. This winter we received the new media bill, now the so called "mini jobs" bill, then one on the pension reform should come. [...] That's a ...

"It is a fact that there is a problem in the pension systems of all countries. It is a fact that deficits are being concentrated there. It is a fact that we have to make changes. It is a fact that unless we make changes, the systems will collapse. Those are the conclusions. And now the experts h ...

Of all the 7 recommendations, which the European Commission made for Bulgaria last year as part of the European semester for closer coordination of the economic and budgetary policies, the government in Sofia has managed to implement only one. That is to reduce the budget deficit, which makes th ...

In February 2012 the European Commission has published a White Paper on adequate and sustainable pensions. The document aims to re-sharpen European public opinion's attention on the problems associated with ageing. This process will only intensify in coming years, as it will put on trial the soc ...

After a weak support of the voters, the several unsuccessful referenda on key reforms and EU's internal problems, Slovenia's Government, among all, has become a minority government on Monday. Out of 99 members of Parliament, the Government now has only 33 representatives in it, after the Zares p ...

We are close to a compromise - with these words Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, summarised the discussions in the Council of EU finance ministers (ECOFIN) concerning the request of 9 member states (including Bulgaria) the costs of pension reforms to be removed ...

How much does a pension reform cost and could these costs be "deducted" from the budget deficit and the public debt? This is the question that the letter of 9 mostly Eastern European EU Member States, among which Bulgaria (Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania Poland, t ...