Who do you have to be to raise the retirement age in the country and take early retirement in the EU?

Yesterday the media in Poland reported that Donald Tusk has been on an early EU pension for almost a year, which he is entitled to in connection with his work as President of the European Council in 2015-2019.

While civil servants of EU institutions can retire after reaching the age of 66, at the same time EU regulations stipulate that they can take early retirement, even 6 years before reaching age. Although in his case it is about EUR 600 less than the full retirement pension, he currently receives about EUR 4.6 thousand gross per month, which works out to about PLN 21 thousand per month at the current exchange rate.

Tusk’s changes

This information would not be extraordinary were it not for the fact that during his rule in Poland Donald Tusk and his team decided to raise the retirement age in Poland in a very decisive way.

Let us not forget that in 2011 then Prime Minister Tusk and the PO-PSL coalition decided to raise the retirement age by 2 years for men and 7 years for women (from 65 to 67 and from 60 to 67 respectively). case of farmers with as many as 12 years for women and 7 years for men (from 55 to 67 and from 60 to 67, respectively).

The voters were misled in this, because in the election campaign in the fall of 2011, the PO’s leading politicians, both the incumbent Prime Minister Tusk and the then President Komorowski, vehemently denied that they wanted to raise the retirement age.

Once they won the parliamentary elections in 2011 and formed the government of the PO-PSL coalition for the second time, they immediately started preparations to raise the retirement age, and the relevant laws were passed in spring 2012 and in January entered into force 1, 2013.

It must be emphasized that this was not an ordinary reform, as the PO and PSL politicians have tried to explain the introduction of this solution until now, but a break with the social contract that had been in place for many years.

The PO-PSL coalition then in power pushed this solution through with the proverbial “roller”, despite enormous social resistance, opposition from all trade union organizations, but also the opinion of many experts.

It should be recalled that the then coalition rejected the motion for a referendum on raising the retirement age tabled by NSZZ “Solidarność”, supported by almost 2 million citizens, with signatures collected by the Union.

During the debate on this issue in the Sejm, Donald Tusk decided to openly confront Solidarity. Trade union representatives were barred from entering the Sejm Gallery, although more than 10,000 of them demonstrated in front of the Sejm.

Moreover, during this debate, Donald Tusk used the words “any pętak” when addressing them to the president of the union Piotr Duda (who presented the motion for a referendum in the Sejm), which the unions saw as an attack on all those they signed the project and were ready to storm the parliament buildings.

Duda’s response

Only the presence of mind of union president Piotr Duda, who urged unionists to remain calm, prevented rioting and perhaps brutal police action, which had gathered in the Sejm in large numbers and were prepared to pacify the demonstrators.

Only after Law and Justice came to power did the government of Prime Minister Beata Szydło – together with President Andrzej Duda – draft a law on the return to the previous retirement age, which came into effect on 1 October 2017.

Despite the fact that experts threatened that this change would lead to the collapse of ZUS finances, after 6 years it can be said with full responsibility that such a thing will not happen, moreover, the coverage of pension benefits paid reaches 87 percent. and is the highest in history.

Who do you have to be to push through an increased retirement age for Poland and at the same time take early retirement yourself in the EU?

You must be Donald Tusk.