Understand
I worked at a European institution — how does it count?
Did you spend part of your career in the private sector and part of it in an EU institution (Commission, Parliament, Council, Court of Justice…)? Those years are not calculated like years spent in another country: they fall under a separate scheme.
A separate scheme, outside European coordination
EU institutions have their own pension scheme, defined by the Staff Regulations of Officials of the Union (Règlement n°31, annexe VIII). It is a scheme governed by Union law, financed by the EU budget (art. 83 §1) — legally distinct from national schemes. As a result, it falls outside the scope of règlement (CE) 883/2004, which only coordinates the social security legislation of Member States (art. 2). Your years in an EU institution are therefore not "aggregated" with your Luxembourg or national periods: there is no adding up of years between the EU scheme and a national scheme.
How the EU calculates its pension
The retirement pension = (sum of the accrual rates) × final basic salary, capped at 70%. The rate per year of service depends on the date of entry into service: 2% (before 1 May 2004), 1.9% (from 1 May 2004 to 31 December 2013), 1.8% (since 1 January 2014) — art. 77 of the Staff Regulations. At least 10 ans of service are required to qualify for a pension; below that, it is a severance grant (art. 12 annexe VIII). The retirement age is 66 ans, with transitional provisions (60 à 65 ans) for those who entered before 2014 (annexe XIII).
The bridge between the two: the transfer of pension rights (art. 11)
Since there is no aggregation, the Staff Regulations provide for a transfer mechanism (art. 11 annexe VIII). On entering the institution, you can transfer the capital value of the rights acquired in a national or private scheme: the PMO converts it into EU years of service (art. 11 §2). On leaving before retirement, you can transfer your EU rights to a new scheme (art. 11 §1) or, with fewer than 10 ans, receive a severance grant (art. 12). It is a conversion of capital, not an adding up of years.
Two concrete scenarios
1) You made the inward transfer: your national years became EU years → you will have a single (EU) pension that encompasses them; the national scheme no longer pays anything for those years. 2) You did not transfer: you keep two separate pensions — an (often small) national pension for your private-sector years, plus the EU pension for your years at the institution.
And in this calculator?
This tool estimates national schemes (Luxembourg and other countries). It does not model the EU institutions' scheme: a different legal basis (the Staff Regulations, not a national law), a calculation carried out by the PMO, and transfer logic that is incompatible with adding up shares by country. For the "EU institution" component, contact the PMO.
Getting the official amount
The individual calculation — and the conversion of transferred capital into EU years — is carried out by the PMO (the European Commission's Office for the Administration and Payment of Individual Entitlements). Staff in active employment go through the SYSPER application ("transfer of pension rights"); a help service is available for pensioners. Only the PMO produces a reliable numerical estimate.
Sources: Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union (Règlement n°31, consolidated version — EUR-Lex CELEX 01962R0031), art. 77 and Annexe VIII (art. 11 transfer, art. 12 severance grant), Annexe XIII (transitional provisions); PMO — Office for the Administration and Payment of Individual Entitlements (paymaster-office.ec.europa.eu). Coordination règlement (CE) 883/2004, art. 2.