EU says concerned about Hungary pension change

The European Commission is concerned about Hungary's plans, which imply the abolishment of mandatory private pension funds, a spokesman for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Thursday.

"One important issue is long-term sustainability," Amadeu Altafaj said in e-mailed response to Reuters questions. "In this respect, we would be concerned if the wealth accumulated in pension funds were to finance current expenditures as seems to be the underlying assumption of the draft budget for 2011."

He said the EU was also concerned over some planned and already implemented changes in Hungary, "which may undermine the ability of independent institutions to exercise meaningful oversight".

(Reporting by Sandor Peto in Budapest and Luke Baker in Brussels; Editing by Ron Askew)