The Green Party’s parliamentary group has put forward a proposal to replace Germany’s current private pension scheme with a national citizen fund modeled on Sweden’s system.
The resolution, announced to the Bundestag by the Greens, argues that the Swedish example shows how a publicly run, automatically enrolling fund can reach a broad cross‑section of the population. It is scheduled to be submitted to the parliament in February, but the governing black‑red coalition is likely to reject it.
The citizen fund would replace the failed Riester pension and, according to the Greens, offers a better alternative than the pension reform presented by Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil in December. The fund would be established under a newly created public‑law body, or transferred to an existing public‑law institution; it would be run independently of politics and managed professionally.
Employees who are classified as dependent workers would be compelled to contribute a share of their wages to the fund, though they would have the option to opt out. Independent workers and self‑employed individuals could also participate but would have to opt in. The fund’s investments would be broadly diversified, largely passive, return‑oriented, and would exclude fossil‑fuel‑related ventures while giving preference to German and European securities.
” The green citizen fund represents a genuine restart in state‑subsidised private pension provision. It corrects the shortcomings of the failed Riester scheme and truly delivers higher supplementary pensions in old age” said Stefan Schmidt, a Green member of the Bundestag’s Finance Committee.