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The Polish government is spearheading an initiative to get the European Commission to review the way public debt is calculated. According to the nine member states who have appealed to the EC, their pension reform efforts should be taken into consideration when public debt is calculated.

The request was made via a letter addressed to the EU Commission and to EU President Herman van Rompuy, and was signed by Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and of course Poland.

“This letter draws attention to the reforms in pension programs in some member states and the way it is reflected in public statistics,” EU spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj commented in Brussels after the letter was delivered.

Germany, meanwhile, has criticized the proposal, saying it would unnecessarily complicate debt figures.

Poland is trying to keep its public debt from exceeding 55 percent of GDP, a level that would trigger constitutionally enshrined austerity measures. Meanwhile, in May the EC estimated that Poland’s public debt would rise to 59.3 percent of GDP in 2011, from 53.9 percent this year.

Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski estimates that public debt would fall to 35 percent of GDP by 2014 if debt attributable to the pension system were exempted.

“I understand and generally agree with Mr Rostowski's argument, because other countries which haven't implemented pension reform simply have hidden debt which is not reflected in statistics,” commented Jarosław Janecki, chief economist at Société Générale. “But at the end of the day, this is not the solution to our problem, which is that we have a growing trend in terms of public-debt ratio to GDP.”

“What we need are medium and long-term measures to reduce this debt, such as cuts in spending,” he averred.