Sergio Gutiérrez Prieto (S&D). – (ES) Madam President, it has already been said that the backbone of pension systems in Europe is, and must continue to be, the public system, because it is the only system that guarantees cohesion and, moreover, reduces the risk of poverty in our society.

It is nevertheless striking that, in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the greatest levels of equality in terms of income are found in pensions, or that, due to the crisis, private pensions lost 20% of their value in 2008 alone and are currently still far from meeting the required levels of solvency.

All of this shows that, at a time of unavoidable reforms, measures to ensure the sustainability of our pension systems must be cross-cutting, taking into account, among other factors, ambitious policies concerning birth rates and balancing work and family life, along with ambitious policies for ensuring that people can enter and remain in employment, or even immigration policies based on integration, which also guarantee the sustainability of our pensions from a demographic point of view.

Finally, I find it regrettable that the text does not place limits on the abuse of the concept of grants in businesses, because, as a general rule, they are exempt from any social contributions. In my view, this is essential for a whole new generation of workers, as if more is being required of them in order to have a decent pension, they should also not have to suffer so much in order to access decent employment.