A delegation of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation led by PFR Board Chairman A.V. Drozdov visited Spain on January 10-14, 2011, at the invitation of Spanish National Social Security Institute General Director Fidel Ferreras Alonso.
The Spanish delegation to the meetings included National Social Security Institute Secretary General Fernando Lopez Huerta and heads of the directorates of social benefits, the general treasury and the social security reserve fund.
Negotiations devoted to topical aspects of social security in the two countries were held at the National Institute and the General Social Security Treasury ; the Russian and Spanish sides exchanged pension, social security, taxation and insurance contributions administering practices.
The Spanish side informed the Russian delegation about its current tasks, mechanisms of funding and provision of paying capacity of the pension system, the payment capitalization scheme, demographic changes in the Spanish society structure and problems related to that fact, and measures regarding the forthcoming pension system reform.
The meetings focused on the Spanish system of electronic document flow (RED), which provides fully automatic accounting in tax, insurance and other social security databases of Spain.
The Spanish colleagues familiarized the Russian delegation with operations of a city district office of the social security information center and demonstrated the process of electronic registration of citizens applying to the center.
Meetings held at the Russian Embassy to Spain were also a part of the visit.
- PFR Board Chairman A.V. Drozdov and Russian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary A.I. Kuznetsov had a substantive exchange of opinions on the current status of the Russian pension system and its long-term development strategy, and prospects of bilateral cooperation with the Spanish National Social Security Institute. They touched upon issues of mutual interest.
- The PFR delegation met with public associations of compatriots residing in the Kingdom. The debates highlighted topical issues of the provision of pension rights of persons residing abroad; norms of the Social Security Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Spain, pension laws and innovations in the Russian pension system were explained. The PFR delegation gave comprehensive answers to questions about the procedure of determination of pension rights, calculation of pensions and maternity capital.
The meetings were held in a businesslike and amicable atmosphere. The sides expressed their mutual interest in the continuation and expansion of bilateral contacts.