Pension Systems In CEE Countries
Chief Editor: PENG Shuyi
Preface
In the past decades, all Europeans countries have been profoundly affected by population aging mainly because of declining fertility and increasing life expectancy. This scenario, however, has created enormous financial pressure on the PAYG pension systems, while the changing labor market has aggravated this challenge. Facing the similar but not equally sizable challenge, nearly all European countries had reformed their pension systems since the mid-1990s, in order to institutionally maintain its financial sustainability.
Compared to western European countries that has produced a large number of literatures on pension system reforms, so far we still know little about what has happened in the Central and Eastern European countries. And this is the main purpose that we decided to publish this book. In this book, there are totally 16 research reports written by the experts in the field, aiming to provide an overview of the pension systems in the CEE countries. The content covers the key challenges, main reforms and consequences, public expectations and major obstacles to overcome. The reports have indicated that, the CEE countries share much in common not only within the CEE block, but also with western European countries: First, they have encountered the very similar challenges, including drastic population aging and a growing number of informal jobs; Second, they have adopted almost the same reform approaches: namely, lifting the retirement age, cutting the benefits, increasing pension eligibility and putting more restrictions on early retirement and mostly importantly introducing a multi-pillar pension system. Certainly, the above reforms in the EEC countries has also been characterized by its demographic change: the decreasing proportion of its economically active population, especially the younger workers who incline to migrate to the western European countries. It is not surprising that this population emigration will make the financial situations of pension reforms more complicated. Moreover, the reports also illustrate that some EEC countries need to do more to safeguard the sustainability of pension systems, and others will face daunting challenges in ensuring an equitable pension scheme and guaranteeing an acceptable living standard for all retirees.
The reports are originally published as the summer issue of the Weekly Briefings in June, 2021, which is a key product of the China-CEE Institute. Nevertheless, the views in the book are solely represented by the individual authors instead of the China-CEE Institute.
The China-CEE Institute, registered as a non-profit limited company in Budapest, Hungary, was set up by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in April, 2017. The China-CEE Institute builds ties and strengthens its partnerships with academic institutions and think tanks in Hungary, other Central and Eastern European countries, as well as other parts of Europe. The China-CEE Institute aims to facilitate scholars and researchers to carry out joint research projects and conduct field studies, to organize seminars and lecture series, to provide training programs for younger researchers and students, and finally to publish academic books, research reports and journal articles.
We wish this book will be beneficial to enrich people’s understandings on the challenges and coping strategies of pension reforms in the CEE countries. In fact, population aging and its potential impact on pension systems is a universal phenomenon. It has been widely recognized that great efforts need to be made all over the world in order to address this big issue, including maintaining the sustainability, increasing the feasibility and extending the coverage of pension schemes to protect all aged persons in need in the context of rapid demographic changes and uncertain economic growth. There is a popular Chinese saying: a jade can be polished by stones from other mountains. We believe that we can learn a lot from the trajectories and strategies of pension reforms in the CEE countries. Certainly, it is also an invaluable ingredient of publishing this book.
Prof. Dr. PENG Shuyi
Institute of European Studies, CASS