The federal core cabinet will start talks on Friday to rework last summer’s pension reform. Competent minister Karine Lalieux (PS) put down her proposals this week. She is already willing to accept a working condition for access to early retirement, albeit subject to conditions. She also wants to tinker with the equalization of civil servants’ pensions – so that they rise along with prosperity. In the Chamber, Lalieux said on Wednesday that her proposals could yield a profit of up to 0.4 percent of GDP.
The French-speaking liberals are now coming up with their own list of proposals, which should yield up to 1.2 percent of GDP in 2070. In concrete terms, the MR wants to break open last summer’s agreement. The increase in the minimum pension will be maintained, because it has long been acquired, but the hard-won condition of effective employment that was linked to it is no longer sufficient, it is said. “Last summer, the government agreed on such a long transition period that, according to the Planning Bureau, this measure is barely profitable, namely 25 million euros in 2040. We advocate immediately introducing the condition of 20 years of full-time work,” says Bouchez.
The pension bonus, which costs money according to the Planning Bureau, must also be tightened up in a similar way. “According to this summer’s reform, someone who was unemployed between the ages of 18 and 60 and then worked for two years cannot receive the bonus. And someone who only graduated at the age of 23 and is not entitled to early retirement cannot. So we also want to open up the bonus for those who continue to work after the statutory retirement age and add the condition that you must have actually worked 7,000 days – half of a full career – in order to receive the bonus,” says Bouchez.
In any case, the MR only wants to open up early retirement after 30 years of effective work of at least 208 working days. The party also insists that the European Commission has not only insisted on financial sustainability, but also on the harmonization of the various systems. The MR may not impose any additional tax on the supplementary pension, not even on the very highest contributions of company directors.