Segars: Keeping up the pressure in Europe has paid off

A House of Lords EU Committee report said the UK risks punching below its weight in Brussels. 

But it doesn’t look like that to me. With a new European Commission pursuing a far more positive agenda than its predecessors, and some important policy wins chalked up on the National Association of Pension Funds' scoreboard, my view is we are doing better in Brussels than we have for many years. 

But their Lordships’ charge is a serious one. Even if their critique is off-target it’s no bad thing to be challenged – are we really as well represented in the EU’s corridors of power as we might be? 

And even if we think we are, have we got the foundations in place to keep those links strong in the future? 

The concerns cited in the Lords report are many and varied, but the key points are: 

Even if their critique is off-target it’s no bad thing to be challenged – are we really as well represented in the EU’s corridors of power as we might be? 

• a fall in the number of British nationals employed in the European Commission – to just 5.3 per cent in 2014 from 9.6 per cent in 2004; 

• the potential ramifications of the debate about Britain’s place in the EU and potential renegotiation and referendum; 

• declining influence in the European parliament; 

• an “occasionally unhelpful tone and attitude” towards Brussels from UK authorities (whatever could they mean?); 

• a perceived anti-City of London agenda in parts of the EU machine, the most obvious example being the new regulations on bankers’ bonuses; and 

• “insufficient commitment” to the “hard graft” of lobbying, negotiation and alliance-building – this is the real challenge to organisations like the NAPF.

Some of these issues are well beyond the NAPF’s control, but we certainly have a part to play on the hard graft front.

And we can influence the tone of the UK government’s work by arming HM government’s officials with constructive points and the evidence to support them. 

There is a danger their Lordships are focusing too much on yesterday and not enough on today or tomorrow. 

The EU agenda has changed significantly while the report has been in gestation. The past few months have seen the tide of post-crisis regulation replaced by the far more positive agenda of the Juncker Commission. 

It is important not to get too carried away by the new and shiny, but there is no doubt the latest team of European commissioners, which took office last November, is striking a very different note. 

The consistent refrain from the commission’s HQ is that every policy proposal is now assessed through the prism of jobs and growth, and has to be signed off by the powerful new first vice-president of the commission, Frans Timmermans. 

So how is the pensions lobby influencing decisions? 

The single-biggest EU threat to UK pension schemes: the long-running battle over potential new solvency rules, has apparently been resolved in our favour. 

This will mean solvency for pensions is firmly blocked for the next five years at least – a hugely important development. 

And this is no accident; the NAPF and our EU-level allies at PensionsEurope have worked hard to build alliances across Europe, frequently bringing employers and trade union groups together in a powerful grouping of social partners. 

We are now preparing the ground for the European parliament’s scrutiny of the revised workplace pensions directive. 

We have made a decent start in building new links and refreshing existing relationships, and our arguments seem to be gaining some traction. 

But the House of Lords have a point; none of this can be taken for granted, we have to keep up the pressure.

Joanne Segars is chief executive of the NAPF and chair of the European Federation for Retirement Provision