EU Official Suggests 'Flexible' Retirement Age
Klaus Regling, director
general of the Commission’s Directorate General of
Economic and Financial Affairs, made the assertion in the
introduction to the latest Quarterly Report on the Euro
Area, according to an IPE news report.
“Longer life
expectancy may pave the way for a possible expansion of
the share of life spent in retirement. However,
retirement decisions also need to be economically and
financially viable,” said Regling. “Flexible
retirement ages adapting to a continuously increasing
life expectancy may be the appropriate policy
response.”
Regling added that EU
policies promoted by the Lisbon Strategy included
contributing to rising employment rates by curtailing
early retirement plans, raising retirement ages and
strengthening the incentives to delay retirement.
Pension funds shifting
their investments into longer-term bond portfolios due to
population aging was one of a number of global factors
behind the current low long-term interest rates.