The generous scheme, originally designed to top up MEPs’ pensions from their home countries, has been heading for disaster for years, with future obligations far exceeding its assets. A deficit of €286 million between future obligations and asset value in 2018 is expected to reach €400 million by 2024. It is forecast to become insolvent from that year, requiring a bailout from European parliament funds, which come from member state taxpayers. The parliament has recognised that it is liable for the scheme’s future obligations.
They can’t even set up a pension fund but they should run the entire continent of Europe, eh?
BTW, for funsies, what would the deficit be if they’d invested in bonds paying a “high” 1% interest rate?
Most of it is probably hidden under the floorboards.
as there is an oblique reference to the P3, this is his latest:
“It is my usual morning practice to scan a wide range of news sources before deciding what to write on this blog. Doing that this morning provides plenty of issues of immediate interest that could be worth commenting on (strikes, the falseness of GDP as an indicator, expected interest rate rises, energy issues, that Martin Wolf in the FT and Phillip Inman in the Guardian both agree with me on the affordability of public sector pay rises) and one stand out article by John Harris in the Guardian.”
From such a “wide range” of news sources, about 99% of his references are to the Guardian, with an occasional honourable nod to the FT. Presumably he believes the likes of the fascist Telegraph and the Times to be equivalent to Mein Kampf.
“Martin Wolf in the FT and Phillip Inman in the Guardian both agree with me on the affordability of public sector pay rises”
It’s never that people have the same opinion as Spud, or that he agrees with them. It’s always that other people agree with him. As if they read and are enlightened by what he writes.
Why not steelman Murphy?
Wasn’t the U.K. paying their share of the shortfall part of the Brexit bill the EU presented, wonder how much was paid and if it was put aside by EU for those purposes or just chucked into the general pot and spent, my money being on the latter