Belarra confirms the agreement within the coalition government to "extend rights to pensioners, guaranteeing sustainability"

MADRID, 10 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government has given a "push" in the last hours to the second leg of the pension reform after closing with Brussels and United We Can an agreement on its content that this Friday it will present to the social agents in a meeting called from 12:30 p.m. at the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations.

As confirmed to Europa Press in negotiating sources, PSOE and Podemos managed to close an agreement late yesterday for this second phase of the reform, which will follow the previous three already materialized and committed to in the Recovery Plan: the reform that revalues ​​pensions with the CPI, the one that modifies the Self-Employed Workers Regime (RETA) so that they are listed based on their real income and the one that promotes employment pension plans.

"The proposal on pensions that the Government makes to the social agents today has been very worked on and shows that what Podemos has always said is possible. We extend rights to pensioners, guaranteeing the sustainability of the system thanks to the increase in income", has pointed out early this morning the Minister of Social Rights and Secretary General of Podemos, Ione Belarra, on her Twitter account.

This second leg, focused on increasing Social Security income and sufficient pensions for workers with more volatile careers, is one of the milestones linked to the fourth disbursement of European funds.

The Ministry of Inclusion has been negotiating three ways (with Brussels, with the political forces and with the social agents) to finalize a reform that the Minister José Luis Escrivá himself described a few days ago as "imminent".

Yesterday Escrivá revealed that the agreement with Brussels was practically done. Community sources confirmed to Europa Press that the European Commission has maintained "intense" contacts in recent weeks with the Spanish Government on the reform of the pension system, one of the conditions to which the disbursement of the 10,000 million fourth payment is subject. of the anti-crisis fund that Spain has not yet requested.

After the yes of Brussels and Podemos, now all that remains is for the pension reform to receive the approval of the CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme. The social agents had asked Escrivá to ensure that before presenting his reform proposal, it would have sufficient parliamentary support for its approval.

"I cannot anticipate the elements (of the reform) because the social agents have to know it first, but basically it is the closure of the system, of the complete sustainability of the system," the minister said yesterday.

Escrivá also pointed out that what will be proposed to the social agents "is an alternative, sustainable, reasonable and credible scheme, with the endorsement of powerful independent institutions", so that the system is sustainable and at the same time maintains the purchasing power of pensions .

The initial proposal for this second phase of the reform that the Government brought to the negotiating table with the social partners contemplated extending the pension calculation period from 25 to 30 years between 2027 and 2038, discarding the two worst years of contribution , so that the pension would be calculated with the best 28 years of contribution within a total period of 30 years.

However, this measure generated "enough friction" with the social agents and with Podemos, as the minister acknowledged yesterday, for which reason the terms of the measure have been modified but with the same objective: that workers with more volatile careers, for example, dismissed at the end of their working life, do not suffer a reduction in their pension.

The Government also raised in its starting proposal the possibility of linking the evolution of the maximum contribution bases to the average year-on-year CPI for the twelve months prior to December, plus an additional annual increase of 1,154 points between 2025 and 2050.

This increase in the maximum contribution bases would be accompanied by an increase in the maximum pension, although not in the same proportion. In this way, the Government proposed that the maximum pension also rise between 2025 and 2050 with the inflation reference established for contributory pensions and the minimum pension (average CPI for the twelve months prior to December), plus an additional percentage of 0.115 points , therefore lower than that proposed for the maximum bases.

As of 2050, the Ministry proposed that, within the framework of social dialogue, the additional increase that would be applied to the maximum pension be determined "until reaching a real accumulated increase of 30%."

The Government has always defended that this starting proposal was open to changes in the negotiation. Today he will present a new proposal to the social agents, with the endorsement of Podemos and the European Commission.