The European Commission is holding a hearing in Brussels to discuss the responses to its pensions green paper on April 21. All those who res-ponded to the green paper have been invited to participate," says Martin Merlin of DGXV, who says the meeting is restricted to respondents only.

The hearing will last a whole day and will cover the main issues including investment, prudential rules, taxation and the mobility of workers proposals. Merlin says that the discussions will be based on a summary of replies that have been received and will be available on DGXV's internet site before the hearing. The site address is: http//europa.eu.int/com/dg15.

Speaking recently in London (see page 7), John Mogg director general of DGXV, said in relation to the green paper: "Some new problems have been identified and some additional concerns have to be explored." The areas he highlighted included the issue of how the prudent man principle would work in practice, particularly in the context of a single currency.

"The argument between life insurers and pensions funds about a level playing field, does this stand up?" he asked. "Should there be a new supervisory regime in relation to pension funds, and should there be absorbtion of pension funds within life insurance?" The commission currently had no views on these issues, he added.

Referring to the responses the commission had received, Mogg said: "A number of member states argued the arrival of the single currency would provide sufficient freedom to pension fund managers." But such an ap-proach, he believed would leave re-strictions in place and would influence investors' strategies. "It might cause psychological reluctance to in-vest prudently and widely."

Most responses doubted Emu would provide pension investors with all the security and freedom they required. "The idea of adopting a specific directive seems to be the broad wish of major sectors of the financial service industry." The member states were more nuanced, he said, with some hesitant to give views, and others divided.

He described the mobility directive as a small step to freeing up cross-border movements of labour. "I hope to see this quickly adopted as the reaction of most member states was positive."

The commission was also awaiting the views of the three committees of the European Parliament, which were examining the green paper. "We hope by the end of this year or early next year to put any conclusions before the college of commissioners." Fennell Betson"

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