Reformed Pensions Systems in Central and Eastern Europe : Challenges to Future Safe Pension Benefits

The objective of this paper is to examine and analyze empirically whether the Central and Eastern Europe countries` reformed pension systems are providing adequate and safe pensions. Starting in 1990s, most Central and Eastern European countries radically reformed their pension systems. The rising optimism initiates many studies where the advantages of the reforms were in the focus.The global financial crisis negatively affects the reformed pension systems. As a response, the policy makers in few of those countries decided to set up different measures: increasing or reducing the pension contribution for alleviating the fiscal deficit or encouraging the employment, adapting the contribution rate and allowing individuals to switch back to the old system. These last changes in the pension systems have triggered the following question: How much and in which way the implementation and experiences gained with the functioning of the reform pension system will have impact in the future pension adequacy and sustainability of the pension system?