Is there a minimum age? What if you've worked in several European countries? Who's going to pay for it? Citizens ask, MEPs answer.

Q&A: Retiring in Europe

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15035282/i001-0020-en.srt

Hello, my name is Moonika.  My question is,

what are the minimum and maximum  retirement ages in the EU?

The situation varies  in the Member States.

in Malta it's 61,  in Romania 58 years and 8 months.

This is not acceptable.  The average of 60 years has to go up

so that we can maintain our pension  systems and guarantee social security.

I'm Rafael Zärt from Austria.  I'd like to know,

how do the MEPs assess  the extension of the retirement age

and the reduction of  youth unemployment?

How to achieve them  when the labour market stagnates?

In 10 years, we'll have fewer young  people entering the labour market.

preparing for the greying  of the labour market

and ensuring that people  are well-educated,

and continue to re-train in the labour  market even as they get older.

Before, people entered the labour market  when they were 15,

So, if you want a good pension,  you have stay longer in the labour market.

My name is Jean-Yves Kitantou,  I'm Belgian.

I'm from the Youth Council  of the French Community in Belgium.

I'd like to know, if a person has worked  in several European countries,

Are there mechanisms for it,  how does it work?

We harmonise many things,  unfortunately,

harmonisation is very much in fashion  in the European institutions.

But in this matter  there is no harmonisation.

The only thing imposed by the EU,  which I think is the minimum,

is that wage earners retain their rights  in the countries they worked in.

Let's say you move to Germany from  Sweden where you've paid social security.

The payments that you have made  in Sweden are then counted

and added on to the payments  you will make in Germany.

If you then move to Italy,  the same thing happens again.

So that system is already in place,  but this is for the state pension only.

I'm Jean-Michel Joubier. I'm responsible  for European affairs at CGT,

recommends the development  of pension funds through capitalisation.

But due to the crisis, they've lost  close to 20% of their value on average.

Shouldn't we think together about  how to develop public pensions,

through contributions, guaranteeing  employees more lasting pensions?

I believe that the future social security  system will be based on three pillars:

a public pillar that we cannot abandon  but whose amounts would be reduced,

a private pillar  that could come from salary quotas

which workers and businesses would  transfer into a social security fund,

and a private pillar,  made up of individual savings.