*Report taken from official website of Opatija Coffeehouse Debates.
On Tuesday, March 20, the cafe of the Hotel Continental hosted another panel discussion as part of the Opatija Coffeehouse Debates project, which they are jointly implementing Association “Cultural Front”, Amadria Park hotels i Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka. Fifty interested listeners, attracted by topicality and relevance of topics, had the opportunity to learn more about sustainability of the pension system of the Republic of Croatia from leading experts in this field, but also participate in the discussion, ask questions and share their experiences.
Prof. dr.sc. Hello Friday.
Panel discussion was opened by prof. dr.sc. Zdravko Friday, full professor in permanent position at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, who pointed out that the increasing financial complexity of pension systems (as a share of total GDP) affects all countries in the Western world, although Croatia is in an even more unfavourable situation here for a number of reasons. Population ageing is one of the main causes of system instability (although there is nothing wrong with people living longer) – in 1991, the age of 65 was only 12.% By 2050, the proportion of people over 65 is expected to exceed 30.%. An even more significant problem is the relationship between the number of workers and the number of pensioners: while in 1950 1 pensioner paid more than 8 workers for retirement, today the ratio is almost equal, so that only 1.14 workers go to 1 pensioner.
dr.sc. Predrag Bejaković
On Friday, another panelist, dr.sc. Predrag Bejaković, Scientific Advisor in the field of thorny vocation at the Institute of Public Finance, which pointed out that (in addition to the causes mentioned above) additional Increasingly early exit from the labour market is also a problem.: while the average retirement age in EU countries is increasing, it is decreasing in Croatia. Bejaković sees no further borrowing abroad as possible solutions, but rather increase of the statutory retirement age to 67 or 68 yearsand equalising the retirement age for men and women. Also, supports the existence of Pillar 2 considers that its potential abolition, sometimes mentioned in the media, would be extremely harmful but also unfair to future generations.
The ensuing debate raised a number of questions and provided high-quality comments. Bejaković claimed that research shows that People who work longer and retire later are healthier and happier on average., but also pointed out that keeping people in the labour system does not necessarily mean fewer jobs for young people – since the number of jobs is not fixed and depends on the development of the economy, it is possible to employ young people without sending older people to pensions prematurely. Friday also agreed with this, pointing out that in order to grow the economy, more investment is needed in education and science, which can also affect the stability of the pension system. In fact, according to Friday, public policies in different sectors affect each other, and because of this Good coordination between public policies (which, in his opinion, is awful in Croatia) of vital importance for the development of the community.
Long discussion after introductory presentations
The organisers thanked the City of Opatija i the Primorje - Gorski Kotar County support in the implementation of the project, and announced Next event – Lecture by Aleksandar Šušnjar PhD student from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka, who will talk about Evolutionary psychology and its impact on ethics and moral intuition.
