In his first significant association with the pensions green paper, Social Affairs Commissioner Padraig Flynn has announced that he and commissioner Mario Monti (internal market and financial services) will hold a joint launch this month.

Betty Olivi, spokeswoman for Monti, had previously predicted that the report would be published in February and draft copies of the paper were in circulation earlier this year.

DG 15, the directorate general for the internal market, carried out the majority of the drafting in liaison with DG 2, which has responsibility for economic and financial affairs. DG 5, which covers social affairs, is believed to have had last-minute input.

The intervention of Flynn and DG 5 is reported to have been prompted by a mini report on pensions and mobility published in December as an annex to the Veil Report on mobility within the EU.

The secretariat for the Veil Committee was provided by DG15 and thus adhered to its policy line, but it considered issues of worker mobility which came under the competence of social affairs.

As one source says: Flynn did some lobbying and has turned the paper into a Flynn-Monti production for which a little bit of re-drafting has been necessary.""

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