Deepening financialization within the EU : consequences for pension regimes

This chapter deals with the deepening of financialization in the EU which is intended with the Capital Markets Union (CMU) and its consequences for pension regimes. It departs from a brief overview of financialization and its meaning. It focuses next on deciphering the CMU as an institutional reconfiguration aimed at removing impediments to the circulation of capital and reviving the role of financial markets in the EU. The revival of finance-friendly views and policies in the EU institutions, after the traumatizing experience of the Global Financial Crisis, is interpreted as the outcome of a political stalemate on "fiscal unification" which opened the path for the advance of the idea of private risk-sharing through finance as a substitute for public risk-sharing in a Fiscal Union. The pan-European personal pension product (PEPP), which is part of the CMU, is then addressed as a plan to speed up the shift of pensions schemes in the EU from Pay As You Go (PAYG) to funded pensions. Finally, the consequences of the possible development of an EU "third pillar" of funded pensions with respect to the future of member states pension systems are highlighted.