Reply to Recommendation 1391 - Situation of the pension scheme for Council of Europe staff

Doc. 8516

14 September 1999

Situation of the pension scheme for Council of Europe staff

Recommendation 1391 (1998)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 678^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (8-9 September 1999)

The Committee of Ministers has studied with great interest Recommendation 1391 (1998) of the Parliamentary Assembly on the situation of the pension scheme for Council of Europe staff. Like the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers attaches considerable importance to this issue.

In the light of the actuarial study of the staff pension scheme, the Committee of Ministers instructed the Secretariat, in December 1998, to report on the legal, financial and administrative aspects of the possible creation of a pension reserve fund. Recommendations by the Co-ordinating Committee on Remuneration (CCR) on a modified pension scheme for new entrants are likely to have a bearing on that report. The Committee of Ministers will resume consideration of the creation of such a fund, with a view to taking a decision, in the second half of 1999 when proposals are due to be submitted by the Secretary General and in the light of any comments to be made by the Budget Committee.

While awaiting detailed proposals on the creation of a pension fund, the Committee of Ministers decided, in April 1999, that a sum equivalent to the total net savings resulting from the choice by 62.3% of permanent staff to join the private sickness insurance scheme, viz 17 271 420 FF in 1999, would be transferred to a suspense account for the creation of a pension fund. Furthermore the Committee of Ministers has instructed the Secretariat to prepare the draft budget for 2000 on the basis that net savings resulting from the private sickness insurance scheme, currently estimated at 20 840 000 FF, would be transferred from the Organisation’s various budgets to the above-mentioned suspense account specifically reserved for the financing of the future pensions liabilities of the Organisation.

The Committee of Ministers will pay particular attention to the Assembly's opinion when considering the future recommendations of the CCR.