The Commission can only regret the spread of often biased information about retirement benefits of EU staff, while it has continuously tried to provide correct information to media and in response to parliamentary questions.

On 13 December 2011 the Commission submitted a Proposal to Parliament and Council to modify the Staff Regulations, which included a revamp of the pension scheme in line with its recommendations to the Member States. Parliament and Council adopted the proposal before the summer. The modified Staff Regulations will enter into force on 1 January 2014 and provide, with regard to the pension scheme, the following measures:

the retirement age increases to 66 for staff recruited as of 2014; the accrual rate is cut to 1.8% per year of service; a new link between life expectancy and retirement age is established;

for current staff, the retirement age increases to 65 with transitional rules;

the early retirement scheme without reduction of pension rights, which the Honourable Member refers to and which was introduced in 2004 to facilitate recruitment of staff from the new Member States, is abolished;

the minimum age for early retirement with a reduction of acquired rights is raised to 58;

a possibility to work until 70 is introduced.

In the period 2010 to 2013, the Commission has not made full use of the legal possibilities under the current Staff Regulations to grant early retirement without reduction of pension rights.