President plans pension reforms

10th February 2012

President Bronislaw Komorowski met with the heads of Poland’s political parties earlier this week to discuss plans on pension reforms.

According to TVN24, the main focus of the meeting was to look at raising the age of retirement to 67 for both males and females.

“The meeting will centre around organising adequate pensions and ensuring financial stability in the face of a changing demographic,” said spokeswoman for the Presidential Palace, Joanna Trzaska-Wieczorek.

She added that the president was “interested in the thoughts and positions of each individual party”, hence the reason for inviting everyone to the meeting.

However, already the controversial proposals have met with conflicting views.

Main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) has stated it is against the move whilst the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has expressed its wish for a referendum.

“We propose Poles be able to vote, with two questions in mind. One, whether they agree with the government’s proposal to raise the age, and secondly what they consider more important with regards to retirement - biological age or the amount of work experience,” said party leader Leszek Miller.