The Ministry of Labour presented the eagerly expected white paper on pensions. It includes the state description, demographic situation, projections, and the proposal of measures as a basis for future discussions.

The presently known contents of the white paper predict the rise of retirement age, and longer contribution period. The retirement conditions are based on 67 years of age, and 15 years of contribution period. The right to early pension will be abolished. The pension basis for calculation will be extended to 34 consecutive most favourable years, with equal conditions for both genders. Nobody will work longer than 40 years, and the pension will amount between 60 and 70% of the last received salary. These are the facts revealed until now by the representatives of the Ministry. Four versions of changes have been proposed.

A prerequisite for adjustment of the system to the demographic trend is an efficient labour market, and the vital objective refers to increased activity of the working population between the age 20 and 64. It is increasing, but remains problematic where the older and the young are concerned.

Last year the average monthly number of recipients of the pension from the compulsory insurance was slightly above 612,000, which is by approximately 0.5% more than a year before. It was the lowest increase in the last 25 years.