Pedro Sánchez announced this Friday that his government’s pension plan already has the approval of the European Union: “Thanks to the agreement and consensus with the community institutions and that we also expect with the social agents what we are doing is to provide security and stability to our elders and their present and future retirements“, said the President of the Government during a visit to the facilities where the Marenostrum-5 supercomputer is being installed.
‘Reform pensions’ is one of the requirements of Brussels to deliver European funds to Spain. Pedro Sánchez highlighted in his speech that there is already a “consensus with the community institutions”, however, Brussels has not yet officially confirmed it.
The European Union does not confirm the agreement
The European Commission’s spokesperson for the economy, Veerle Nuyts, did not want to assume that an agreement with the Government of Spain has been closed, but what she did confirm is that in recent weeks very close and intense contacts have been established with the Spanish government on pension reform and especially on fiscal sustainability, which worries Brussels so much and what it is demanding to be reformed.
From here, the spokesperson has summoned the government to send the proposal and the documents as soon as possible to Brussels. Once this has occurred and after Spain has requested the next disbursement of European funds, which are expected around spring, the Commission will officially pronounce.
“We can confirm that we have maintained intense contacts in recent weeks with Spain, the analysis of the European Commission on pensions will come after verifying that all milestones and objectives linked to the next disbursement have been completed“, explained Veerle Nuyts, spokesman for the European Commission.
The key to reform
There will be two periods for calculating the pension: so that it is calculated with the last 25 years of contributions, as up to now, or with 29 years of contributions, excluding the two worst years of the professional career (in practice, the calculation of this second will be 27 years old).