Pan-European Pension

The PEPP is designed to give the 240 million savers in the EU a better choice in the fragmented and uneven European market, where options are nearly non-existent in some member states.

"[4] Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, added: "The agreement achieved by the European Parliament and the Council on PEPP is a major milestone on the road to addressing pension gaps and demographic challenges and a major achievement in completing Capital Markets Union.

"[5] Gabriel Bernardino, Chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), said: "The current macro-economic environment with persistent low and negative yields requires the rethinking of long-term retirement savings solutions.

The implementation of the PEPP Regulation is an opportunity to build an appropriate regulatory basis for the design and monitoring of innovative and cost‑effective products that could enable European savers to reap the benefits of sustainable growth.

[7] With the PEPP the EU is responding to changing demographics due to the aging of the population, the modern forms of labour, and embracing the opportunities of digitalisation.

This PEPP is designed to give savers more choice and provide them with more competitive products, while enjoying strong consumer protection.

PEPPs could be particularly attractive to both mobile citizens and self-employed individuals who are not participating in state-based or occupational pension provisions.

But PEPP could also be an opportunity for new FinTech players to enter the market with innovative solutions competing with more traditional providers such as insurance companies.

Cross-border portability: Providers will be able to offer PEPPs on a pan-European basis, allowing savers to continue saving in the same product, when they change residence across borders in the EU.

In case portability is not available, consumers can switch providers free of charge or can continue to contribute to the PEPP of the previous country residence.

Given the expected market size and the long-term nature of pension products, PEPP could contribute significantly to the EU sustainability agenda in the financial sector.

The basic PEPP aims at preserving the savers capital at retirement and cover the contributions during the accumulation phase after deduction of all fees and charges.

In order to create a level playing field for PEPP and existing national pension products the European commission encourages the member state to grant PEPP savers the same tax treatment as similar existing national personal pension products.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is mandated to ensure a consistent implementation and supervisory of PEPP.

The panel consists of high-level experts with a diverse set of experiences and expertise, from insurance companies, asset managers, NGOs and universities.

[16] The Consultation Paper sets out EIOPA's current stances to approach the regulation of key aspects of the PEPP.

In this, the European Commission called for an exploration of ways to support personal retirement savings with the appropriate level of consumer protection and build and a single EU market.

Based on the results of a public consultation, in July 2016 the EIOPA issued advice with a proposal for a standardised Pan-European Personal Pension Product (hereafter "PEPP")[19] as a complementary option alongside national regimes.

[24] The first official PEPP provider in Europe is Finax [sk], the Slovak roboadvisor started offering the product in September 2022.

[26][27][28] The EU commission has proclaimed the European Green Deal to make Europe the first climate neutral continent by 2050.