Recent moves by the French, Irish and Hungarian governments to seize pension assets to reduce fiscal deficits have highlighted a growing continent-wide issue of political interference. The fear is that the actions of cash-strapped governments will threaten the future pensions of Europe’s citizens.

The most blatant smash-and-grab raid occurred in Hungary, where government policy appears to herald the destruction of the country's 2.7 trillion forint ($12.8bn) private pensions system. Last month private pension fund participants were given until the end of January 2011 to transfer their pension assets to the state treasury or lose certain rights to their state pension.