EUROPE - European finance ministers, meeting in the Council of the European Union in Brussels, are expected to tackle the potentially contentious mid-summer letter of protest by nine EU member states against accounting practices for pension liabilities on 7 September.
The letter - from the governments of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden - takes issue with the fact some older EU countries have failed to reform the booking of pension liabilities in their national statistics.
Addressed to Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Olli Rehn, economic and monetary affairs commissioner, the letter points out that the growing problem of over-indebtedness in many member states means funded pension schemes are critical for enhancing the long-term stability of Europe's public finances.
"Nevertheless," it continues, "the experience of member states that have introduced such reforms is that they have led to a significant deterioration in the ESA 95 statistics of their general government debt and deficit.
"This inevitably acts as a strong disincentive for introducing such reforms and would do so to an even greater extent if sanctions for breaking deficit and debt levels were strengthened."
The letter argues that statistical data reported by member states that have chosen not to introduce such pension reforms, and "thus maintain their future pension liabilities implicit", are not subject to the same deterioration.
"As a result," the letter says, "as long as such reforms have only been introduced by some member states, evaluations and assessments of the general government debt and deficits in countries with 'pay-as-you-go' systems and those with funded pension schemes are not comparable."
The nine member states conclude that maintaining the current approach to debt and deficit statistics will result in "unequal treatment" of member states and thus effectively punish reforming countries.
Matts Karlson, a Swedish government official, said that since 1995, all employees in Sweden - in the public and private sectors - have contributed to a "premium pensions" system, and that the funding amounted to around 1% of GDP.
At present, according to Eurostat estimates, the Swedish budget balance of GDP for 2010 is estimated at -2.1%, he said. If the pensions funding were taken into account, however, it would be -1.1%.
An industry insider in Brussels said the letter of protest was an instance of new EU members taking a stand against older ones.
He said the newer states had reformed their pay-as-you-go pension systems, but that the statistics failed to recognise their efforts.
He added that the Commission's cautious approach to the matter stemmed from the letter's potentially serious political implications, as older members felt threatened and worried they might have to recalculate their national deficits to take into account pension liabilities.
Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio pointed out that any changes to rules for accounting statistics would have to be agreed unanimously by all member states.
He said the Commission could make proposals on the matter, but that it could go only so far if member states did not want to alter their accounting rules.
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