European Union finance ministers talked about the possibility of reforming social welfare systems with Europe’s workers facing a growing burden from pensions and health care costs of older people.
There is a need to improve health care, welfare and pension’s spending to afford Europe’s generous social safety net in future, they have said. “Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of social expenditures will have a crucial impact on Europe’s capacity to maintain the high achievements of the European social models”, the ministers said.
Representatives also agreed on the necessity for governments to act now so as to cope with the future burden of an increasing ageing population. "This will put a disproportionate burden on the working population as there will be only two people of working age per pensioner as opposed to a ratio of four to one at present".
European Union finance ministers decided to accept a lower voting quot on the meeting of the European International Monetary Fund (IMF) hold in Washington on 12-13 April, giving more say to emerging economies as China, India and Brazil,
The EU nations also agreed on reforms to the IMF, a global financial watchdog with a mandate to monitor the health of the world economy and provide technical ans financial help to its members. EU members discussed how the IMF can fund itself in future as it pulls in less money from billion-dollar loans it lent nations that faced financial crisis.
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