This paper presents and evaluates pharmaceutical policies in the EU aimed at the rational use of medicines and at keeping pharmaceutical spending under control. Policy makers are growing more aware that by regulating pharmaceutical markets correctly, considerable savings can be achieved without compromising the quality of care. Specifically, the paper makes the case that, by following numerous best-practices in pharmaceutical sector regulations, the value for money of pharmaceutical consumption could be substantially increased. Appropriate regulations can be relevant for pricing, reimbursement, market entry and expenditure control, as well as specific policies targeted at the distribution chain, physicians and patients.JEL classification: I11, I18.

Most EU Member States have carried out substantial pension reforms over the last decades in order to enhance fiscal sustainability, while maintaining adequate pension income. The intensity of pension reforms has been particularly strong since 2000. These reforms have been implemented through a wide range of measures that have substantially modified the pension system rules and parameters. One of the most important elements of pension reforms, aside of whether countries engaged or not in a systemic change, has been the introduction of mechanisms aimed at automatically adjusting (indexing) the key pension parameters (pension age, benefits, financing resources) to demographic pressure (e.g. changes in life expectancy, increase in the dependency ratio). Indeed, since the mid-1990's, half of the EU Member States have adopted either automatic balancing mechanisms, sustainability factors and / or automatic links between retirement age and life expectancy. All these pension reforms are projected to have a substantial impact on containing future pension expenditure trends. According to the latest long-term projections in the 2015 Ageing Report, public pension expenditure is projected to be close to 11% of GDP over the long run in the EU, almost the same as in 2013. However, the fiscal impact of ageing is still projected to be substantial in many EU countries, becoming apparent already over the course of the next two decades. This is also due to the very gradual phasing in of already legislated reforms, an issue that raises questions about the intergenerational fairness of the reforms and poses some doubt on the time-consistency of their implementation. Indeed, the sustainability-enhancing pension reforms legislated in a majority of EU countries will lead to a reduction of generosity of public pension schemes for future generations of retirees. But to make sure that these reforms will not have to face political and social resistance and risk of reversal in the moment they start to be implemented in full, other "flanking" policy measures are likely to be necessary: for example, reforms that boost retirement incomes by effectively extending working lives and employability of older workers (also through flexible working arrangements that allow people to keep working beyond current formal retirement age and to step down gradually from full-time to part-time to very part-time work) and provide other means of retirement incomes (e.g. private pensions) and appropriate social safety nets to avoid that people fall into poverty in old age. EUROPEAN ECONOMY Discussion Paper 042JEL Classification: H55, J26, J1.

This paper presents the methodology and results of labour force projections over the long term (until 2050) for each of the 25 EU Member States. These projections were undertaken in order to provide the background technical inputs for the assessment of the potential economic and fiscal impact of an ageing population. This assessment is carried out in the framework of the EU Economic Policy Committee's Ageing Working Group by projecting public expenditure on pensions, health care, long-term care, unemployment insurance and education.The projections presented in this paper are based on a common methodology for all countries and the first to include estimates for the new Member States. They show the outcome for the labour force of extrapolating recent trends in labour market behaviour (entry and exit rates from the labour market). These base case projections reflect the working assumption of "no policy change" and are neither forecasts nor predictions in that they are not based on any assessment of more or less likely future changes in working patterns or economic conditions. To summarise the outcome of projections, the baseline scenario indicates that, notwithstanding the projected increase in the participation rates and the reduction in unemployment rates, the pace of labour force and employment growth in the EU25 will be weakly positive over the next 15 years and will turn negative over the period 2018 to 2050. These is mainly the outcome of projected declining trends for the working-age population and a shift in the age structure of the population towards older, less participating groups -a consequence of the baby-boom generation approaching retirement and the succeeding lower-birth-rate cohorts reaching working age.