VBL, the German pension fund for employees in the public sector, Dutch pension asset managers APG and PGGM, and Union Retraite, the entity representing public and private pension institutions in France, are among the founders of the association rolling out the European pension dashboard.
The other association founders include the European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP), representing institutions for social protection, Federal Pension Service in Belgium, Swedish pension dashboard MinPension.se, Sigedis and the Dutch national tracking service Stichting Pensioenregister.
The European Tracking Service (ETS) association will formally launch on 1 January 2023, according to a final report describing the work done so far, and the road ahead to build a pan-European pension dashboard.
The executive board of the association has three members, representatives of the VBL, the French and the Swedish national pension tracking services.
“During the rollout phase around four or even more PTSs [pension tracking services] should be connected to the ETS,” project manager Claudia Wegner-Wahnschaffe said, adding that the next steps include continuing the exchange with PTSs on connections, and with stakeholders in a European Forum on Pension Communication, and receive the necessary public funding for the rollout.
The partners have handed over the final report on the pilot project to build the ETS, under the existing brand www.FindyourPension.eu (FYP), a website for researchers dealing with pension claims, to Jost Korte, European Commission’s general director for employment, social affairs and inclusion (DG EMPL).
According to Wegner-Wahnschaffe, the Commission was satisfied with the results of the project and intends to further cooperate and support the rollout of the ETS.
A key point of discussion between the partners and the Commission is around who should be responsible for the rollout of the European pension dashboard, in additon to working out financing it.
The statutes of the ETS association points at possible income for funding including membership fees, donations and funding from public donors, according to the final report.
Public funding is deemed “essential” to ensure the independence of the ETS, whereas advertising or private funding would threaten neutrality, the report added.
The partners in the project expect to set up the association under German law, structured with a general assembly representing the members, a board of directors including an executive board, the advisory and the national tracking services committees.
Membership will be open to further national pension tracking services that are public, private or public-private entities, regardless of their legal form, offering digital services to track pension entitlements accrued in countries of the European Union and in the European Economic Area, the report added.
Membership is also open to public or private institutions managing pension provisions in first, second or third pillar schemes.
The Commission called in 2018 for the “development of web-based cross-border pension tracking services” for mobile workers, building on the Track and Trace Your Pension in Europe (TTYPE) initiative.
National tracking service and pension providers will have to make data available on the ETS so that mobile workers can assess their situation with regard to pension benefits.
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