Greek Deputy Minister Anna Efthymiou Pushes Reform of Professional Insurance

Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security Anna Efthymiou presented a draft law to strengthen Greece’s professional insurance system during a session of the Parliament’s Permanent Committee on Social Issues. The proposal would allow employees, freelancers and self‑employed workers to opt for a supplementary pension through long‑term savings while keeping the mandatory public pension pillar unchanged.

The bill builds on the experience of Law 5078/2023, which modernised the operation of the Professional Insurance Funds. It targets three main goals: fixing existing shortcomings, expanding access to professional insurance for more workers and businesses, and enhancing the system’s reliability, stability and outlook for the younger generation. Efthymiou highlighted that currently fewer than 5% of the labour force and about 1% of GDP are covered by these funds, underscoring the need for further reinforcement. The Bank of Greece will assume supervisory duties over the funds and has contributed technical expertise to the draft legislation.