The retired worker, the state and EU social policies

Abstract

The main objective of a pension policy is to ensure that at the time of retirement, workers would still receive an adequate income (though not necessarily solely from the state). Pension schemes tend to vary considerably according to country, social class, sex, region and age. An inadequate pension could lead to social exclusion; this is particularly. prevalent among two groups of workers within the EU member states - female and cross-frontier workers. Chapter 1 exposes the problem of ageing in Europe and the lack of a coherent European social provision which could make older workers more vulnerable to social exclusion on retirement. It describes the four welfare regimes prevailing within the EU Member States and questions what provisions are there to ensure that every worker of the EU is able, at the time of retirement, to enjoy resources affording him or her a decent standard of living. Chapter 2 and 3 analyse the impact of EU social policies applied to concrete situations. Chapter 2 discusses gender discrimination, which should have been prohibited by Article 119/EEC and its related directives, and its relevance for pensions. Chapter 3 examines the economics of pension provision for EU cross-frontier workers on retirement and exposes obstacles to freedom of movement of persons and services within the EU. The last chapter, the conclusions, looks at some proposals for reform and their feasibility.