EU social policy ministers call for retirement age that reflects healthy life years

Europe's social policy ministers have endorsed recommendations that call for the alignment of the retirement age to increasing life expectancy and to increase the participation rate of the elderly in the job market.

As Europe faces its pensions time bomb with dwindling population numbers and an unsustainable pension bill, ministers issued a call to member states that echoes previous recommendations to raise the retirement age as more Europeans can expect to enjoy healthier life years after the age of 65.

The European Council once again reiterated its call for restricted access to early retirement schemes, supporting the development of supplementary pension schemes, and tackle gender differences in pension income for women and men.

In its conclusions on Europe's demographic challenges, social policy ministers said that while increased life expectancy represents great progress, demographic changes bring the reality of an increasing share of the elderly population and a decreasing share of the working age population.

"This presents a number of challenges for welfare systems, public finances and labour markets and the resulting pressure is being compounded by the present economic crisis and its social impacts," the council said.

"The current crisis puts Europe under pressure and it is important to identify the key priorities that require urgent action with a view to ensuring sustainable, job-rich and inclusive economic growth in Europe."

In the next decade the European economy will require more workers, especially workers with competitive professional and key competences, and will need longer working lives to ensure this supply of manpower.

The European Commission believes that a huge untapped potential exists in the extension of working life: in the EU, on average only 47.4% of people in the 55-64 age range are in employment; female employment rates of 58.5% on average remain substantially below those of men, the unemployment rate for young people has risen to 21.4%, and the employment rate of persons with disabilities is 40%.

Raising the employment rates for all persons of working age is a key policy objective for EU member states, as set out in the Europe 2020 headline targets on employment.

The council also called for member stats to take measures to substantially increase women's participation in the labour market and develop family-friendly policies that promote a balance between work, family responsibilities and private lives.