If the systems differ, all European countries face the same challenge: the aging of the population. This upsets the fragile balance between assets and retirees. Eurostat provides that the population of the European Union will reach a peak at 453.3 million inhabitants in 2026, before declining at 447.9 million in 2050, then 419.5 million in 2100.
This demographic decline, coupled with low economic growth, puts public finances under pressure. By 2050, there should only be two people of working age for each retiree, against three today. An imbalance that pushes many states to reform their retirement systems, as France or Denmark has recently done, which has just pushed retirement by three years. Many other European countries are also planning to follow the step and first align with the European average and then increase in the coming years and move on to a diet similar to that of Belgium.
The legal age remains a reference: in reality, many citizens go back to retirement earlier. In Belgium, for example, on average according to the OECD, the Belgian leaves four years before the deadline.
Faced with the aging of the population and the growing imbalances between assets and retirees, the decline in the legal retirement age appears for many states as a necessary solution, but not without social and political consequences. If the European Union struggles to harmonize its systems, trends show a gradual shift towards later departures, even if, in fact, a large part of the workers continue to take their pension in an early manner. Between economic constraints, social equity and realities of the labor market, the future of pensions remains an open project on a European scale.
