To continue paying pensions, Europe needs radical reform

The now well-documented tendency for couples to have fewer children, combined with growing numbers of older people, is ringing alarm bells across the continent.

Some studies predict that in the next 50 years, Spain and Italy will see their populations shrink by more than a quarter.

With fewer workers supporting more pensioners, the implications for Europe's social security systems are enormous.

Warnings

The Brussels conference will echo warnings that many EU countries will be unable to pay for their existing public pension systems without radical reform.

Proposals to stimulate and give more support to private pension schemes across the European Union are currently in the pipeline.

Britain's highly-developed private pensions industry is keen to sell its wares in Europe's single market.

But in other quarters like France and Germany, there is more resistance to measures that would threaten generously-funded state pension systems.

Many favour simpler, more radical solutions, such as raising the retirement age across the European Union and scrapping early retirement schemes.

Sweden, which currently holds the presidency of the EU, advocates policies which reconcile career and family, so that working mothers are not discouraged from having children.