The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Commission (EC) have been criticised for their lack of action on enforcing cross-border pension rules.

During a panel session at the CBBA-Europe Annual Conference in Brussels last week on how EU regulation on pension funds is evolving, CBBA-Europe secretary general/CEO, Francesco Briganti, asked EIOPA and the EC why they have not enforced cross-border regulations, such as those in the IORP II Directive and the regulations on the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP), in countries where there are alleged breaches.

“We are sure that the European supervisor and the wording of the treaties did not take care of what was going on in some member states…. It is not about changing legislation, the articles are there… the deadlines were clear,” he said.

Briganti argued that when these deadlines were not met “nothing happened” and as a result, some operators had to withdraw from the market. He added that when CBBA-Europe approached EIOPA and the EC about this, their answers were “very vague”.

“I think it is really about political games,” he said, and questioned: “Where are the supervisors in saying you have to make it work?”

In response, EC deputy head of unit, insurance and pensions, Larisa Dragomir, said: “The enforcement process is a very lengthy one and it happens, not obviously public, which is why we have to be vague in our answers but I can reassure you it happens.”

She said the process takes “time and patience” and stressed that the EC is not a law firm and is doing a lot of other work with a team of just 15 people.

“I can reassure you that we are doing our best and there is a focus of the new commission on implementation, [to try to] solve some of the issues not by regulation but by implementation,” she said.

Also on the panel, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) head of policy and supervisory convergence, Patrick Hoedjes, commented: “I can’t say anything against that only that I share some of the frustrations.”

However, he defended EIOPA, stating that the authority has a lot of work to do.

“There are a lot of member states where basic supervision is failing. So, we also have to prioritise in EIOPA, which item are we tackling now and it’s a long list. Then the enforcement is also very cumbersome, very time-consuming and very limited,” he said.

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