The proponents of the limited access to savings caught savers into a trap. Take it or leave it. Fortunately, also thanks to INESS, which also commented on the law in Parliament, there is a sort of exit option for savers, who don’t like the offered annuities but need some money from their savings. They can keep their savings account and withdraw at least annual yield.
Just before Christmas, it became clear that the prime minister and the two major labor unions had signed a memorandum which not only prevents raising the retirement age, but also fundamentally changes the pension model of Bulgaria. Noteworthy, the main agents behind this decision were the same people who in 2010 decided to steal 100 million leva from professional pension funds, thus breaking the Constitution.
The changes proposed by the government have met with a fierce resistance from economists and other experts, because the campaign against the funds is clearly demagogic, and the nationalization threat conflicts with Poland’s successful transformation from communism, which has been based on privatization since 1989.
So how do we imagine the liberal vision of equal opportunities policy in Poland? For sure, it should provide the opportunities to develop regardless of external circumstances such as descent, parents’ income, place of birth, race, sex and so forth.
A major pension reform was approved in a fast track procedure. The expense of this fast track procedure was not only the violation of legislative rules by the new parliament and government, but also lack of understanding of the long-term impact of this reform.
Since regaining independence some twenty years ago Latvia, a small, open economy has been tormented by three economic crises: first one resulting from the economic transition (institutional change from centrally planned to free market economy), second, in 1998, being transmitted from Russia, and the last one being part of the recent global recession. Despite these circumstances, Latvia has successfully conducted reforms aimed at elicitation of the labour force (i.e. increasing the labour force participation rate…
As The Warsaw Voice writes on Monday, March 26, there were protests of Solidarity trade union members against governmental plans to increase the retirement age. Several hundreds of protesters gathered in Warsaw, in front of the prime minister’s office. Trade unionists announced that protests would be held throughout whole week, on Wednesday they would move demonstrations to the front of the parliament. Meanwhile talks between two parties of the ruling coalition – Civic Platform (PO)…
