Würzburg economist Peter Bofinger is a member of the pension commission appointed by the German government. The commission is tasked with drawing up proposals for pension reforms.
Anyone who has followed the debate in the media and the Bundestag over the past few weeks will know that there is hardly any question that is currently causing such a stir as the future of pension insurance in Germany. A new "Pension Commission" set up by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) is intended to help find an answer. On 17 December, the Federal Cabinet passed the corresponding resolution to set up the commission.
The commission consists of 13 members. It will begin its work in January and is to "develop reform proposals for pensions and ensure a sustainable, intergenerationally fair system that masters the challenges of demographic change" by the end of the second quarter of 2026, as the ministry writes in a press release.
In addition to political representatives, eight academics are members of the commission - including economist Peter Bofinger, who was a member of the German Council of Economic Experts from 2004 to 2019 and is currently Senior Professor of Economics, Money and International Economic Relations at the Faculty of Management and Economics at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU).
"I am very pleased to be a member of the Pension Commission," says Bofinger, "but I am aware that it will not be an easy task. It will be about reforming the pension system, which is a cornerstone of our social market economy, in such a way that there is a fair balance between the generations."
Other members of the commission are
- The two chairpersons, Prof. Dr. Constanze Janda and Frank-Jürgen Weise
- Three deputy chairs from the German Bundestag: Annika Klose (SPD), Dr Florian Dorn (CSU) and Pascal Reddig (CDU)
- As well as the academic members Prof. Dr. Tabea Bucher-Koenen, Prof. Dr. Georg Cremer, Prof. Dr. Camille Logeay, Dr. Monika Queisser, Prof. Jörg Rocholl, Prof. Dr. Silke Übelmesser and Prof. Dr. Martin Werding.
"The commission should reach its decisions by consensus," states the coalition committee's resolution paper. "In the event of differences of opinion, a majority decision is possible."
