Marking the increasing importance of Brussels lobbying to the European Federation for Retirement Provision's strategy, Mrs Chris Verhaegen last month took up a position as the organisation's full-time representative in Brussels.

Verhaegen, a law and languages graduate who specialised in economic, European and competition law, has been the director of the Belgian Pension Funds Association for the last nine years. Before this, she worked for the Flemish employers association and in the private office of a Flemish government minister.

Federation chairman Alan Broxson, outlining the reasons for the appointment, said that the EFRP was now clearly established as the definitive voice of pension funds at a European level. Broxson added that federation priorities in the near future include research into the effect on pension funds of monetary union and of national laws governing common treatment of atypical employees.

Chris will be the principal contact for non-investment issues. With the proposed directives on migrant and mobile workers and the equal treatment directive, benefits are just as important a part of the equation as investments," he said. Koen de Ryck will continue as consultant to the EFRP on investment matters."

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