Pension Systems in the EU: Variable Patterns of Influence in Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium

Abstract

The paper investigates how European welf are states respond to reform pressures arising from European integration. We ex amine the impact of two variables that mediate the impact of reform pressures cau sed by EU membership : the extent of public pension provision and the number of veto points in national political institutions. Our preliminary expectation is that, all else equal, member states with few veto points and a relatively small public pension sector are the most likely cases of policy change in response to Europeaniz ation, whereas member states with a high number of veto points and extensive public pension comm itments are the least likely candidates for policy change.