Basically you can access these savings before retirement for funding your property (in or on which you have to live), found your own business/company or if you move to another country (I think must be outside the EU). The latter is what I did a long time ago.

The 2 saeule was introduced in 1985 and is just a giant money transfer mechanism to bring all this funds to the banks and insurance companies and out of the hands of the hard working people and their employers. So in general, business as usual.