Merz supports plans to raise retirement age in Germany

2026-06-23 21:03:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Germany will gradually raise the retirement age to around 70 by the early 2090s, according to recommendations backed by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as a means of preparing the pension system for the future of an aging population.

Presenting its findings on Tuesday, an expert commission set up to review reforms to the pension system said the retirement age should be linked to increasing life expectancy and early retirement should be abolished.

“No citizen should worry,” Merz said, adding that the measures would prevent the collapse of the crumbling pension system and strengthen the social contract between generations. Young people, he argued, would be given “reason for optimism” by the measures, which would “lift a huge burden” off their shoulders.

The expert commission held long daily sessions from January until presenting its 33-point plan on Tuesday.

Among its main recommendations are that mandatory contributions made by employees and employers be invested in the stock market in order to grow and protect the value of the fund for future generations. It also proposed expanding mandatory pension contributions to include civil servants and self-employed workers.

The current retirement age for anyone retiring in the early 2030s in Germany is 67, a figure set about two decades ago. The panel said this should gradually increase in line with life expectancy, rising to around 70 by the early 2090s.

Germany has one of the fastest-aging populations in the world and, like many Western countries, has faced a challenge of how to ensure its pension system has a future when fewer and fewer workers are funding the pensions of more and more retirees who are living longer and longer.

The government hopes to pass the reforms before the summer recess next month, although they still need to be debated and voted on in parliament. “All elements of this reform package must now be implemented swiftly,” Merz said, insisting: “Failure is not an option.”

The leader of the conservative Christian Democrats said his coalition was united in its unwillingness to get bogged down in the wording mess, after some left-wing members of the government from his junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats, as well as unions, had questioned the fairness of some of the recommendations.

Critics targeted the proposal to remove the right for those who have worked for 45 years to retire at age 63 without seeing any reduction in their pension, saying it would penalize those in physically demanding, lower-paid jobs, such as construction workers or caretakers. Experts pointed out that this had often benefited men in well-paid positions who had a proven history of uninterrupted employment.

"We cannot afford isolation or the rejection of individual measures," Merz said, adding that the reform commission had created a "comprehensive concept... that works as a whole."

Merz is under pressure to show that his government - in office for just over a year but struggling in the polls and beset by internal strife - can deliver on its promises of sweeping economic and social reforms in a bid to revive Germany's weakened economy.