While it is possible to take your pensions contributions from national systems and put them into the pension scheme of the European Union institutions (PSEUI), this is often a long-drawn-out process and it can be rather opaque. We recently highlighted the general exclusion of Member State ‘gifted’ contributions (e.g. covering times of military service or caring duties) from transfers-in and of a failed court case to try to recover the contributions where their inclusion made no difference. Now we cover a further potential complication which is delays in Member States doing their part in this process.

Here’s the process: note that there is no obligation to proceed

1. You make a request (fill out the Sysper forms).
2. The Member States count your contributions and declare them (‘capital value’).
3. The PSEUI converts the sum to the number of years of pensionable service recognised.
4. You then decide whether to go ahead with the transfer
   1. If yes, you confirm transfer  and the Member State makes the transfer.
   2. If no, nothing happens.

If the Member state does not engage or respond then the whole process stalls. We highlight only one Member State, but there are several where the same issue arises.

Generation 2004, having learnt of significant problem with transfers-in of pension rights from Romania, asked how the issue is being addressed.

Context

It seems that it is literally impossible to finalise a transfer-in from this member state and that already-initiated transfers-in do not progress, even though the respective colleagues initiated their transfer-ins more than a decade ago. While we understand that the problem is not on PMO’s side, we would nonetheless ask you to inform us about the steps already taken by PMO and the institutions to remedy this problem. More than 15 years since the accession of Romania to the EU should have been enough time to come up with a workable solution. Further, how does PMO plan to ensure that the colleagues can actually benefit from their statutory rights and that this member state complies with the staff regulations, which are, after all, an EU regulation and not some more-or-less binding provisional text?
It is in everybody’s interest that transfers-in can be conducted in a reasonable amount of time. By way of a hypothetical example, how does PMO intend to ensure that survivors of a deceased colleague will ever receive the correct amount of a pension, when the colleague’s transfer-in might not be finalised before even the survivors die?

Answer

In 2021 the Commission opened an infringement procedure  and Romania subsequently set itself a 12-month deadline for transfers (in and out), but some additional work is needed and the process is not yet functional. Nevertheless we have the assurance below.

‘In any case, every transfer-in that has been requested within statutory deadlines, can be finalised afterwards, even if the beneficiary is already benefiting from an EU pension. Any additional entitlements resulting from the transfer would lead to a retroactive recalculation of the EU pension.’

Feel free to contact us if you have questions about a possible transfer-in or if you are waiting on a Member State fulfilling their obligations.

If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004.

As always, feel free to contact us if you have questions: we’re here for you