Ansip: Changing Estonian pension system needs to be discussed with people

TALLINN - The present government's proposals to change the pension system are not necessarily bad, but these would have to be openly discussed with the public, European Commission vice-president for the digital single market and former Estonian prime minister Andrus Ansip said on Monday.

"I am not ruling out that there are good ideas among the proposed ideas, but these would have to be openly discussed with the people," Ansip said on Monday speaking at the Tallinn representation of the Commission.

To change the pension system a mandate has to be asked from people, and the reforms should not be made in the shadows and concealing a part of the truth from the public, Ansip said.

The situation has to be explained to the people so that they understand if the system needs to be changed, he added.

At the same time Ansip did not agree with critics who say that after the present pension system has been changed, there is no point in working hard and paying taxes. "The 2 percent from the social tax and 4 percent being added by the state into the second pillar of the pension system will not disappear," he stressed.

In the future people would be able to choose when they retire, get a partial pension, stop their pension payouts and resume them at a better time. For the pension system to be in compliance with demographic developments and for it to be possible to pay pensions equivalent to present pensions in the future, the national old-age pension age would be tied to the expected average life expectancy as of 2027.