04/06/2012
Revision of IRP directive postponed by six months
The European Commission will this year not present its revision of the integrated retirement plan (IRP) directive.“Due to the complexity and size of the project, and particularly of very high quality quantitative impact studies, I have decided to take a few more months to finalise the revision. We are thus planning to present the revised directive by summer 2013, rather than at the end of 2012,” The European commissioner in chage of the internal market and services, Michel Barnier, announced on 1 June in Amsterdam.The European Commissioner also pointed out that not all the rules included in Solvency II will be applied to professional retirement institutions. “However, European regulations applicable to insurance businesses are important for pension funds, since there is a legal link between the two,” Barnier points out. The pension fund directive, which dates from 2003, currently refers to insurance regulations in force at that time, namely Solvency I.In this environment, how can pension funds be made to benefit to the same extent as insurers from more effective regulations, better adapted to the challenges of today? “I think it is important to maintain competitive equality betweeb insurance companies and pension funds, when they provide similar and interchangeable products. I would not like to penalise either one or the other,” says Barnier.Hence the decision not to rush things and to continue to work in close collaboration with the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and all participants to ensure “a good balance in the final text.”
