The European Parliament has given its approval to an EU Directive that aims to improve the arrangements relating to the maintenance of supplementary pension rights.

The existing EU regulations only permit individuals to transfer their statutory pension rights (such as their state or social security benefits), and have been seen as insufficient to safeguard supplementary pension rights (such as rights held in a pension fund built up by contributions during a period of employment). These pension rules have normally been seen as amounting to an obstacle to the freedom of movement of workers between the EU Member States. The revised rules will contribute to taking away the current barriers to free movement, for example the requirement for long periods of employment to enable the workers to acquire the pension rights, the “vesting period” or the risk of that the pension rights could be forfeited when leaving a particular pension plan.