Dr. Robert Sweeney:

As it is currently envisioned, member states will be allowed to extend their adjustment period from four years to seven years if they agree to undertake growth-enhancing reforms. If the retirement age is extended, that technically enhances economic growth because, essentially, more people are at work. To safeguard that, you would have to be explicit that the social contract would be protected alongside the growth-enhancing reforms and spell out what that might mean. As it is currently phrased, growth-enhancing reforms would include things like increasing the retirement age.