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　　中英文本

　　Germany's public pensions

　　德国社会抚恤金

　　In the wrong direction

　　方向错误

　　The government is reversing some of itspredecessor's sensible pension reforms

　　政府正在颠覆之前明智的抚恤金改革政策

　　AS THE country with the European union   's fastest-ageing population, Germany has repeatedlytweaked its pension system to avert a slow-motion demographic disaster. The biggestreform came during Angela Merkel's first term as chancellor. Then, as now, her centre-rightChristian Democrats were yoked with the centre-left Social Democrats in a “grand coalition”. In2007 the coalition decided that the normal retirement age should gradually rise from 65 to 67.

　　作为欧盟人口老龄化最快的国家，德国一再调整养老金体系以避免人口增长缓慢带来的人口灾难。最大的改革是在安吉拉·默克尔第一次担任总理期间。而现在，她的中右倾基社党与中左倾社民党联手组成“大联盟”。在2007年联盟决定退休标准年龄应该逐步由65提升到67岁。

　　Mrs Merkel has since preached similar demographic and economic sanity to most of her EUpartners, criticising France in particular for straying off the right path. So it comes assomething of a shock that Mrs Merkel, now in her third term and running another grandcoalition, is reversing course. On the campaign trail for last September's election, shepromised to raise pensions for older mothers. The Social Democrats countered with promises tolet certain workers retire at 63 instead of 65 (not to mention 67). As coalition partners, theywill do both at once.

　　默克尔自此便一直向她的大多欧盟伙伴们鼓吹类似人口和经济健康发展的体系，同时特别批评法国偏离了正确的道路。所以默克尔现如今正处于第三个任期中，又在组织另一个大联盟，并且完全颠覆了之前的道路，这多多少少让人感到震惊。在去年九月选举的竞选游说中，她承诺会提高高龄产妇的抚恤金。社民党立刻还击承诺让一些工人在63岁退休而非65岁(期间并未提到67岁)。如今作为联盟伙伴，他们想两项都立时进行。

　　It falls to Andrea Nahles, the labour minister and a Social Democrat who likes to wave thebanner of “social justice”, to push the pension package through parliament by the summer sothat it can take effect on July 1st. A previous reform let women with children born after 1992treat three of their stay-at-home maternity years as if they had worked and paid full pensioncontributions. The new “mother pension” will be for the 8m-9m women (and very few men) whotook time off for children before 1992. They will be allowed to count two of those years, insteadof just one, as working years for pension purposes.

　　这发生在劳工部长及社民党党员安德里亚·那勒思身上。她热衷于高举“社会公正”的旗帜。她想推动国会在夏天便通过养老金方案。这样新政策就可在7月1日生效。先前的改革让子女于92年之后出生的妇女享有三年离岗休养孕假，只要他们曾经工作过，并缴纳了全额的抚恤金。而这项新的“母亲年金”将造福于在1992年前为了子女而离职的800万至900万妇女(和极少数男人)。她们将被允许将离职中的两年而非一年当作养老金要计算的工龄。

　　The second part of Mrs Nahles's reforms, retirement at 63, is aimed at people who havecontributed to the pension system for at least 45 years. But Mrs Nahles wants to count notonly years spent working or caring for children or other family members but also periods ofshort-term unemployment. Separately, she will also boost the pensions of people who cannotwork due to disability, and spend more money to rehabilitate them.

　　那勒思改革的第二部分是63岁退休。这是针对那些至少缴纳了45年养老金的群体。但那勒思希望不要仅仅关注工龄或离职照顾孩子或者其他家庭成员的时间，而且要把短期失业的时间也计算在内。另外，她将推动提高那些因残疾而不能工作的人的养老金，并且她将花更多钱用于帮助这些人康复。