RO Constitutional Court admits Govt.’s move to bar 40% pension hike

Romania's Constitutional Court (CCR) on January 13 admitted the objections raised by the Liberal Government last year against the law providing for a 40% increase in pensions, G4media.ro reported.

It is up to Parliament to determine how much pensions increase, CCR also said.

The Court admitted the objections on the grounds of legislative technique. Namely, the amendments to the budget revision law - which includes the Government's decision to reduce the 40% pension hike, would create a legislation void because they don't explicitly state that the 40% hike should be reinstated.

Ironically, the Government's objections were admitted not because the 40% pension hike would be unsustainable (CCR is not supposed to make such judgments), but because the amendments aimed at barring Government's move against the pension hike were ill-written.

The Social Democrats (PSD) authored the 40% pension hike, which threatens the country's sovereign rating because of the major fiscal slippage it would generate, before they lost power in late 2019.

They further aggressively promoted this measure during the election campaign last year.

The former Liberal Government increased pensions by 15% on September 1, 2020, through the emergency ordinance that also amended the state budget law.

However, PSD, which controlled the Parliament at that time, amended the budget revision law to keep the 40% pension hike.

After the Constitutional Court's decision, the new majority in Parliament, held by a center-right coalition made of PNL, USR-PLUS, and UDMR, can pursue its more sustainable pension rise calendar.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)