Austrian PM calls for EU pension reform
By Honor Mahony
Austrian prime minister Alfred Gusenbauer has said the EU should reform its pension system with up to €1 billion expected to be paid out to retired eurocrats next year.
"Pension reform is being carried out everywhere in the EU in order to secure the pension system. No one is immune to this challenge and that goes for the EU too," Mr Gusenbauer said to Austrian daily, the Kurier.
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He added that the European Commission should come forward with a "proposal on how it thinks it can solve the problem. Changes to pensions are made by laws."
The Austrian leader's comments come as the EU is expected to pay out €963.5 million next year to former officials, according to a report in German newspaper Die Welt.
By 2020 analysts are expecting the number of EU pensioners to rise by 5.5 percent per year, largely due to the large number of EU civil servants that joined the institutions as a result of the 10-country enlargement in 2004.
According to Die Welt, the average yearly pension for EU civil servants is €70,124, meaning a monthly amount of €5,844. From this, around €1000 a month is deducted for tax and social security.
In total, EU officials pay 10.25 percent of their gross wage into a fund. But only a third of eurocrats' pensions are paid out of this fund, the major part is paid by EU member states.