The presence of occupational pension schemes within the overall pension scene

Normally the studies concerning the development of pension funds focus on the quantitative dimensions of the phenomenon. Supplementary pensions include a plurality of instruments and various types of pensions. Thus to modify this situation, we need redirect reflection towards a more qualitative approach. Quantitative approach is the consequence of the existence of an ideological clash between a liberal and a social view of welfare problems. Social and economic framework has been modified in the last decades and so there is no reason for keeping the terms of the conflict unaltered. It suggests the need to develop an empirical and flexible approach to the matter. Pension funds will be one of the pivot of a mixed pension system. involving both public and private players with capitalisation and pay-as-you-go system. Defining this process requires a major planning effort by the social partners. Pension funds offer opportunities for shifting relations between social parties onto a level which has never been achieved, but at the same time they require a long-term strategy which also presupposes that different national situations will move towards convergence. The experience of the European Union may perhaps offer a suitable occasion for achieving this objective.