Council waters down conclusions on researchers mobility

I have already commented on the first draft of the "Council conclusions on mobility and career of European researchers" in January and my verdict was very negative.

But now the Council plans to water down the issue I thought was one of the most important parts for mobile researchers - the portability of (supplementary) pensions - as we can see in the second version of the draft (highlights in the original):

WELCOMES TAKES NOTE of the intention of the European Commission to launch a Green Paper on developing a European Framework for adequate and sustainable pensions, and the ongoing work on the portability of supplementary pensions, including those of researchers, that will now be taken forward in this wider context on this issue [...]

INVITES the Commission, in particular, to drawing on the Green Paper process, to examine the need for a new proposal of a Directive initiative on portability of supplementary pensions, taking into account, among other considerations, the specific problems and needs of researchers as highly mobile workers as well as the experiences acquired by supplementary pension providers to overcome mobility disincentives.

Well, Council, why do you draw any conclusion if you don't welcome moves towards transferable pensions or support a concrete directive, erasing the only practical solution included in the original draft conclusions?

Read also: A pan-European pension fund for researchers

I don't get what the Union wants to do for young researchers

I have just read the Draft Council Conclusions on mobility and career of European researchers as proposed by the Spanish Council Presidency.

As a young researcher addressed by these conclusions I have to say that I have no idea what the EU or the member states actually want to do based on this document.

It's the usual "we welcome the report XYZ" and "we ask the Commission to produce a new report ABC" diplomatic-bureaucratic speech but it doesn't contain anything concrete that will ease the (mobile) life of me or my colleagues.

So good luck, bureaucrats, at the Research Working Party meeting on Monday - I suppose there will be substantive amendments adding the reference to at least one more important report somebody has produced in the last three years to the conclusions.

Nobody will care.

Janez Potocnic: "A pan-European pension fund for researchers" [supplemented]

EU-Commissioner Janez Potocnik writes in his blog:

"I’m delighted to announce that we have now launched the feasibility study for a pan-European pension fund for researchers. The stage has now being set for a thorough legal and technical analysis which I hope will lead to the promotion of this ambitious initiative. [...]"

As a now-scientist I can only say that I support the initiative, not without adding that as a maybe-not-forever scientist I would be even more delighted if such a study wouldn't be limited to researchers but extended to more sectors.

Supplement:

"Hewitt Associates, based in Brussels, was awarded the €285,000 contract [for the feasibility study; JF] out of seven applicants on the basis of quality, legal requirements, management of the study and resources."

Source: ipe.com