Necas: first phase of pension reform could be passed this year

The Czech Labour Minister Petr Necas said on Wednesday that he thinks the first phase of his proposed pension reforms could be passed by parliament before the end of this year. Mr Necas says he hopes to reach a cross-party consensus on the reforms before putting them before parliament for approval. Among other things, the mooted reforms include raising the state pension age and increasing the obligatory number of years people should be making pension contributions before being entitled to retire.