The European Commission (EC) has said that it will take infringement action “where necessary” to remove barriers and ensure the Pan-European Personal Pension product is transposed by member states.

The PEPP is a voluntary third-pillar personal pension product designed as a new option for EU citizens to save for retirement on top of any state or occupational pension savings they may have. Its key selling point is its portability – savers can keep saving in the same product even when they change residence in the EU.

Regulations to introduce PEPPs were adopted by the European Parliament in April 2019, with member states given until March 2022 to transpose the legislation, paving the way for providers to launch the products. Yet a year and half since the March 2022 deadline, there are several countries that still need to transpose the legislation into their domestic law.

This includes the country at the very heart of the EU, Belgium, as well as Greece, Portugal and Bulgaria, among others. With previous pension regulation, such as the IORP II Directive, the EC has taken infringement action against countries that missed the deadline.

Currently, the EC told European Pensions that it is “following up on implementation by member states with EIOPA”.

“The regulation itself needs implementing in certain areas (i.e. who the regulator is, sanctions, and tax treatment for PEPP savers),” a spokesperson for the EC told European Pensions.

“Next spring a review of the PEPP will give us the opportunity to see the full picture and then to take action (infringement) where necessary to remove barriers and ensure that PEPP has its place in the market.

“This is an important part of the CMU agenda to foster more efficient personal pension savings for EU citizens,” the spokesperson concluded.

As it stands there is just one provider of PEPPs in the European Union, a Slovakian-based digital finance company called Finax. It operates in four countries: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia and Poland.

European Pensions has undertaken a deep dive on the success of PEPPs to date, including a case study on Finax, which can be read here.

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