Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project

Conference Presentation Materials

Capital Matters in Europe 2009

The Project worked with the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC)  (with the Global Unions Committee on Workers Capital as a knowledge partner) to convene a meeting modeled on the Project’s annual  “Capital Matters: Managing Labor’s Capital Conference.”  This one-day event, “Capital Maters in Europe 2009,” took place in Brussels on December 10th.  It brought together member-nominated pension fund trustees, trade union officers, pension and other experts and policy makers who offered views and shared experiences from across Europe and from a transatlantic perspective.  It focused on how workers’ and their families’ retirement and other long term savings can be invested in productive assets in the real economy in a fair, sustainable and responsible way and not diverted into unproductive financial transactions and speculation.  For more details see http://www.etui.org/en/Events/2009/December-10-Brussels-Seminar-Capital-Matters-in-Europe-2009

Planning is underway to convene the next conference. Those having an interest in it, please contact Project Director, Larry W. Beeferman at lwb@law.harvard.edu.

[Agenda | PDF]

Articles

Agenda and Corresponding Power Point presentations:

1st Panel Financing European workers' right to decent, predictable and adequate retirement: a review of the European landscape a year into the crisis
Moderator: Pierre Habbard, Policy Adviser, Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD

Chris Driessen, Head Social Security Department, Federation of Dutch Trade Unions, FNV, The Netherlands
[Pensions in the Netherlands ( PDF)]

Bernhard Ebbinghaus, Director, MZES, University of Mannheim, Germany
[Varieties of pension governance: the regulation of private pensions in Europe (PDF)]

Vit Samek, Head of the Legal Department, Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions CMKOS, Czech Republic
[Pension reform in the Czech Republic (PDF)]

Clara Severinson, Administrator, Financial Affairs Division, OECD Secretariat
[Pension systems during the financial and economic crisis (PDF)]

Heather Slavkin, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor, Office of Investment, AFL-CIO, USA
[Financing European workers' right to decent, predictable and adequate retirement: learning from the American experience (PDF)]

2nd Panel: The governance of pension funds, the role of member-nominated trustees and their relationship with unions
Moderator: Colin Meech, National Officer, The Public Service Trade Union UNISON, UK

Mo Baines, Representative UNISON on the greater Manchester municipal pension fund, UK
[The governance of pension funds, the role of member-nominated trustees and their relationship with unions (PDF)]

Jenneke van Pijpen, Vice President, ABVAKABO FNV, Pensionfund for Health and Social Services, The Netherlands
[The role of trade union representatives in pension schemes; the Dutch situation (PDF)]

Ellen Nygren, LO-Sweden, Member of the Supervisory Board of AMF Pension, Sweden
[The role of trade union representatives in Swedish occupational pension schemes (PDF)]

Herman Santos, Trustee, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association; member, Service Employees International Union Local 721, USA [The governance of public pension funds in the U.S.. The role of member-nominated trustees and their unions (PDF)]

3rd Panel: Exercising Active and Responsible Shareownership: A transatlantic comparison?
Moderator: Ieke van den Burg, supervisory board member of APG Asset Management, former MEP, The Netherlands

Sigurt Vitols, Senior Research Fellow, Social Science Research Center Berlin, Germany

Vonda Brunsting, Deputy Director, Capital Stewardship Program, Service Employees International Union Roy Jones, Grant & Eisenhofer P.A, USA

Jeanett Bergan, Head of Responsible Investments, KLP, Norway

4th Panel: Moving forward: is there a need for European Union action?
Moderator: Maria Jepsen, Director of the Research Department, European Trade Union Institute ETUI

David Eatock, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, European Commission
[Moving forward: is there a need for European Union action? (PDF)]

Jozef Niemiec, Confederal Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation ETUC