Pension experts across Europe have made a plea to the next European Commission (EC) for a time of implementation rather than new legislation.

Speaking during a panel session at the PensionsEurope Annual Conference in Brussels, yesterday, 25 April, Eversheds Sutherlands partner pensions, Eric Bergamin, said: “I think my message to the new EC after the elections… there is too much and too complex. So no more rules, please no more, because we have already so many rules. I fear that when we have more rules, in the end we end up with less pension.”

There has been a flurry of new regulations and frameworks developed during recent years by the current EC that all in some way impact the pensions industry. These include the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR), Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), Financial Data Access (FiDA) framework, Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) and currently a review of the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision II Directive (IORP II).

Another speaker, MetallRente GmbH CEO, Hansjoerg Muellerleile, was positive that the EC would listen to the industry and that “from a new incoming European Commission we might see a focus on implementing what we have in the regulation, not necessarily expanding on new fields”.

“We can always reevaluate existing regulation, we can always make it better, but my point is not introducing even more new fields of regulation,” he added.

PensionsEurope CEO, Matti Leppälä, noted that the industry calls for less regulation in each political cycle but this time it really is the case.

“For many in the pensions world, and in the insurance world, regulatory risks are the highest risks for the company; that’s not right, it should be insurance business not regulation business. I think one of the problems is the [European Commission] and the European Parliament, are in the business of making regulation, so what can we do about this?”

In response, fellow panel speaker, EC member of cabinet of executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis, Nicolò Brignoli, said: “Our business is to do the policy that seeks to achieve certain objectives. I take all your points that we need to regulate less, that we have done too much, too complex… this is very clear, and I hear your messages on DORA and the reporting requirements.”

Brignoli, when asked about the next EC’s focus, said: “It is not easy at this particular juncture to focus on what is going to be the concrete series of priorities for the next commission.” However, he said, “pension coverage is back on the agenda” and it will inform the EC’s thinking.

Furthermore, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) chair, Petra Hielkema, said in an earlier session: “IORP II - there are changes in IORP II, and I hope the EC will work on them, but they weren’t world shocking. I mean there wasn’t a revolution.

“I don’t think really big changes for the pension landscape in Europe are not going to come through in IORP II… I think pretty much everyone was happy with evolution and not revolution and maybe that is fine for now, as long as we work on getting more insight on the gaps… at least EIOPA is not pushing for a full haul over for the new commission of IORP II.

“I welcome the fact that the next commission should be about implementation and less new legislation. I would add to that I would very much welcome some pragmatism in how we implement. In the sense that, if there really is an upcoming change, and you will hear from the new commission in the next few years to change the SFDR, then let’s see how much we need on level 2 or 3 for the old SFDR and to what extent we can wait for the new SFDR to be in place before we start doing a lot of work that we then would have to change later on.”

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