European Commission (EC) head of unit insurance and pensions, Tilman Lueder, has said the EC plans to launch a consultation on the pension initiatives outlined in its Savings and Investments Union (SIU) strategy in early May, in line with its intent to launch all pension-related initiatives in Q4 2025.

Speaking at the PensionsEurope conference yesterday, 10 April, in Bucharest, Lueder confirmed that the EC is still expecting to finish its review of the existing frameworks for Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORPs) and the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) by the end of 2025.

“In reality, that means that the results of the reviews and probably the proposals will have to be tabled for adoption by our college in November of 2025, which means we will be working against a very accelerated schedule," he stated.

In line with this, Lueder said the EC will be deciding on targeted aspects for this soon, with an eight-week consultation is set to commence in early May 2025.

This consultation will be divided into two four-week periods, featuring a stakeholder forum/workshop in the middle, at the end of May or the beginning of June, to incorporate industry feedback into the reform process.

The result of the consultation will be presented as an impact study and from the results, the EC’s college and its political masters will decide what kind of measures and reforms will be enabled.

In addition to this, Lueder also announced that the Council for Member States expects the EC to submit an improved version of the PEPP by the end of the year.

He said: “The PEPP has not been a big success. I don't think anybody can say the PEPP has taken off like a rocket."

He stated that the EC is receptive to industry opinions and discussions on this topic.

Lueder explained that the EC will now evaluate which recommendations to incorporate into the PEPP reform, including those suggested by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).

However, Lueder said that maybe there should not be a PEPP as such and instead suggested there should be a label whereby any supplementary pension products that exists, can comply with that label and achieve a certain amount of standardisation.

The review of the existing frameworks of IORPs and the PEPP was originally outlined in the EC’s recent launch of its new SIU strategy, on 19 March.

Whilst industry organisations welcomed the plans for the SIU, with PensionsEurope highlighting it as a “major step” in strengthening Europe’s financial system, there have been concerns over the timeline, with PensionsEurope warning that the intent to launch all pension-related initiatives in Q4 2025 will require careful planning and adequate resources from both the European institutions, as well as stakeholders.

The SIU has a dual goal to develop supplementary pension schemes and the supplementary pension sector into more of a global sector and to promote investment in equity and other alternative asset classes.

Later in his keynote speech, Lueder said that private markets were a “big priority” for the EC regarding the SIU's second aim, because “a lot of the promising segments of the European ecosystem are actually in private markets”.

“As part of the IORP review there will also be a focus on investment mandates as part of our equity investment and private markets,” he continued.

He also explained that although not specifically set out in the paper, there is an expectation, when speaking about private market engagement, that asset managers and pension consultants will recommend private market strategies in local markets.

“There is a slight emphasis here on private markets in terms of expertise, as trustees and their advisors as outsourced managers will favour the markets that they know best, which are the European markets," Lueder explained.

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