New Lobby, Cross Border Benefits Alliance – Europe, Launched
July 2017
Advocacy organization Cross Border Benefits Alliance-Europe (CBBA-Europe) in July 2017 was launched to promote cross-border/pan-European employee benefit plans in Europe, including pensions, healthcare, disability, long-term care, and well-being/wellness programs.
The Alliance “is strongly convinced that the current national barriers to the creation of cross-border employee benefits represent a useless burden and foolish costs for sponsor companies and future beneficiaries”.
CBBA-Europe will lobby E.U. institutions and member states to remove legal, tax, administrative, and political obstacles. Economies of scale, simplicity in administration, full portability of social benefits, costless mobility of workers and consistent taxation formulas would be beneficial for both the E.U. internal market and the European Social Model. Moreover, assets accumulated in pan-European funds may be invested in the European economy and contribute to the completion of the Capital Markets Union (CMU). The Alliance strongly believes that the E.U.’s economic and social objectives go hand by hand, a “social market economy” being clearly mentioned in the Treaty on the European Union.
The Alliance will include multinational companies, trade unions, and financial and insurance industry members. Membership should appeal specifically to sponsor companies operating in several E.U. member states; to sector-wide employee benefit funds including employer and worker representatives; to insurance, mutual and paritarian social protection providers; to pension or healthcare funds administrators and TPAs, actuaries, lawyers or consultants; academics; to consumers’ organizations; and finally to national and international associations representing corporations, social protection funds, or professionals.
CBBA-Europe will interact with E.U. institutions such as the European Commission and the European Parliament, and with national governments and supervisory authorities, by raising issues on behalf of its members and by developing legislative and practical solutions.
The first institutional goal of the Alliance is to participate in working groups, draft position papers, create reports, and organize public events. Its governance will be made up of a General Assembly, a Management Board, a Scientific Council of academic experts, and several technical and strategic committees.
To join the Alliance or for more information, contact: Francesco Briganti, Secretary General of CBBA-Europe. Phone +32 2 401 87 92, email francesco.briganti@cbba-europe.eu