Old-Age Pension Systems’ Reforms in Germany, Greece and France – A Social Citizenship Perspective

Abstract

European old-age pension systems face multiple challenges. On the one hand, governments are concerned with the fiscal effects of ageing societies. On the other hand, there is a social pressure on maintaining standards of living during the retirement. Such tension is one of the most significant socioeconomic conflicts in modern politics. During last 25 years, policy makers tried to answer these challenges by pension reforms. In general, a trend towards reducing social rights can be distinguished, which is to a significantly smaller extent accompanied by improvement of coverage and benefit levels for some groups. This research analyses old-age pension reform trajectories in three European countries: Greece, France and Germany. It focuses on the generosity of pension benefits, access to pensions, and anti-poverty function of the pension systems. The paper assesses, whether over a period 1990-2015, a convergence took place between the countries and if yes, what was its direction.