Our analysis implies that standard accounts portraying the EU as a regulatory polity with little discretion over pension policy issues are wrong. The constraining impact of EU treaties on national pension policy choices and the creation of a single European pension market demonstrate that the scope of EU regulations is much broader than traditional accounts on the EU have acknowledged. Far from being limited to apolitical areas of market creation and maintenance, the European Union crucially shapes workplace pension regulations, with highly controversial implications for national labor relations and capital flows. European legal constraints have greatly reduced the capacity of national governments to influence workplace pension regulations, notably in the areas of investment rules, waiting and vesting periods, treatment of foreign pension funds, and regulatory supervision. Market integration and the management of cross-border externalities may drive EU pension legislation, but the reshaping of national pension policy choices is the outcome.

The findings of our inquiry have been discussed at length in the book. We provided evidence that pension reforms in the member states are not just a consequence of domestic factors, such as demographic aging, but also the result of international factors, in particular the constraining effects of the Maastricht Treaty. Using an event history set-up, we systematically tested whether the timing of pension reforms in Western Europe ensued from the diffusion of policy ideas, domestic pressures, or common shocks.