The Bureau of the European Parliament confirmed on Tuesday, by adopting the minutes of its meeting of 1 April, three measures regarding the additional pension fund for MEPs: raising the retirement age from 60 to 63, scrapping the option of taking out 25% of acquired rights as a lump sum and ending the possibility of taking early retirement at a reduced pension. In this manner, the fund's liquidity will be maintained and taxpayers will not be asked to cover the fund's actuarial deficit. The cover rate of the MEPs' additional pension fund has significantly decreased, as is the case with many other pension funds. However, at a meeting on 21 April 2009, the Bureau - Parliament's President and 14 Vice-Presidents - confirmed its decision taken three weeks earlier, not to make provisions for covering any losses. It did, however, recognise that Parliament has a legal obligation to guarantee the pension rights of the current members of the fund and it therefore took the above-me...