Law on lowering retirement age this year: Polish PM
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
13.06.2016 15:50
The Polish parliament will probably adopt a law lowering the retirement age by the end of this year, Prime Minister Beata Szydło said on Monday.
PM Beata Szydło. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Szydło told reporters: "A bill submitted by the president is currently before a parliamentary committee. I think that by the end of the year… it will be adopted.”
Lowering the age at which Poles retire was a key campaign pledge by the socially conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which swept to power in the country’s October general election on a wave of spending and welfare promises.
President Andrzej Duda, who hails from Law and Justice, wants to reverse retirement reforms carried out in 2012 by the former Civic Platform (PO) government.
Duda wants the retirement age to return to 65 for men and 60 for women, down from the 67 for both sexes introduced by the PO.
The former government, led by the more economically liberal Civic Platform, had argued that raising the retirement age was inescapable as Poland is facing a demographic crisis, with the number of pensioners set to rise in proportion to people of working age. (pk)
Source: PAP