‘Social Europe’ in Old-Age Security? EU Policies of Public and Private Pensions

In the early 1990s, Rainer Pitschas — a scholar in administrative and social law — had a clear vision about an emerging pension policy promoted at the EU level by EU institutions. Pitschas (1993, p. 97) pointed out that the phenomenon of demographic ageing, which affects all European countries, could cause severe social conflicts in mid- or long-term perspectives, and that these conflicts would probably be dealt with by EU institutions: ‘If, by the year 2025, about 17% of Europe’s population will be above 65 years of age, this is most likely to influence the development of a genuine European pension policy’ (translation: UD). In 2002, Eberhard Eichenhofer — another expert in social law — concurred: social protection, so he said, was now a matter covered by EU law; the Charter of Fundamental Freedoms included an individual right to pension provision: ‘This right has to be implemented by community law’ (Eichenhofer, 2002, p. 329; translation: UD). Eichenhofer added that today, traces of social policy were also to be found in other EU policy areas, such as financial policy, monetary policy, or the interpretation of the freedoms guaranteed by the EC Treaty.