Germany promises equal pensions for east and west by 2025

Germany said on Friday it would gradually raise pensions in the formerly communist east to reach the level of those in the west by 2025, more than three decades after reunification. The announcement comes as the country is gearing up for a key election next year, with the parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand right-left coalition keen to woo ageing voters.
"Some 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall we should finally have equal pension rights in the east and west," Labour Minister Andrea Nahles said as she presented the package of reforms. The deal agreed by the coalition government calls for pensions in the east to be gradually increased over seven years from 2018 until the gap with pensions in the west is closed.