The Parliamentary Committee on Finance once again failed to make progress on the long-standing and controversial issue of multiple pensions.

As Brief reports, the matter remains on the committee’s agenda, with ongoing discussions around various legislative proposals and related government bills. However, no meeting has yet been scheduled between Finance Minister Makis Keravnos and members of the relevant parliamentary committee to foster any form of collaboration.

Sources indicate that AKEL MP Giorgos Loukaides is in contact with the Finance Minister, but no tangible outcome has emerged.

This morning, Loukaides informed the committee that the issue of a meeting with the Minister of Finance will be discussed at the conference of parliamentary party leaders or their representatives.

An important point highlighted again today was the repeated warning from the representative of the Legal Service, who emphasized that some of the submitted legislative proposals contain provisions that are unconstitutional.

It is evident that a long road lies ahead before any resolution is reached on this issue—one that resonates deeply with the public, as the practice of receiving multiple pensions is widely seen as an affront.

As Brief reported earlier, it is a notable fact that multiple pension recipients were not subjected to pension cuts during the financial and banking crisis, unlike the rest of the pensioners and salaried employees, who experienced reductions in their earnings.

Today, certain state officials continue to receive double and even triple pensions.

Nevertheless, the Legal Service has expressed a positive view on a proposal by the Auditor General, who suggested the creation of a special pension fund for public officials. This could serve as a potential solution to the practical and constitutional challenges arising from the existence of different pension schemes for various categories of state officials.

The proposal involves establishing a unified pension plan to cover all state officials, with explicit provisions for contributions, retirement age, and benefit calculations. This could be considered a future-oriented solution.

The Legal Service also noted that under such a unified pension scheme, pension benefits would be calculated and paid out once only, based on pensionable earnings, contributions, and length of service for each official or category of officials.

Additionally, the proposed plan could include a cap on both pension payments and lump-sum retirement benefits, modeled after the logic of the current scheme for certain officials.

The Finance Committee is currently reviewing 12 legislative proposals in addition to two government bills.

Among the proposals submitted are provisions to raise the retirement age for MPs and ministers to 65 and introduce mechanisms to regulate the issue of multiple pensions.

Another proposal recommends a 90% income tax rate on the excess amount of total income derived from multiple pensions, if the combined income exceeds €70,000.

A joint legislative proposal by DISY and DIKO also seeks to give any official appointed or elected to a public position the option to submit a formal declaration waiving their state pension for the duration of their service in that office.