A Comparison of the Pension Systems of Greece, Austria and Sweden

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: 2,0, University of Lisbon, language: English, abstract: The European social model is challenged by decreasing fertility rates, higher life expectancies and the recent financial crisis. As member states are committed to provide sustainable and adequate pensions, they constantly have to review the sustainability of their systems and implement reforms to cope with the population ageing without destabilizing public finances. For our analysis, we choose the three countries Austria, Greece and Sweden. Our aim was to analyze a variety of different pension systems, not only different in their pension structure but also in their recent sustainability. Consulting the '2014 Pension Sustainability Index' suggests Sweden as a highly sustainable system with minor need for reforms. Austria in the mid-table has a quite sustainable pension system but needs to implement reforms to keep sustainable in the future. Greece made huge improvements in its sustainability due to the recent reforms implemented with the Troika but still remains in the lower field. In our opinion, these three countries give a diversified overview of the European social model.