Romania's Constitutional Court finds procedural flaw with law aiming to reform magistrates' pension system

The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) ruled on October 20 that the law that modifies the pension rules for magistrates is unconstitutional. The decision on the law follows a complaint of unconstitutionality filed by the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

The law, proposed by the government led by Ilie Bolojan as part of several reform packages, aimed to gradually increase the retirement age for magistrates to 65 years, the standard in the public pension system; increase the minimum length of service to 35 years from 25 at present; and cap the magistrates' pension to no more than 70% of the last net salary, compared to the current 80% of the last gross salary, a formula which allows pensions to be higher than the work-period income.

CCR rejected the draft law for procedural flaws. It found that the government did not obtain the mandatory consultative opinion of the Superior Magistracy Council (CSM). It did not analyze the content of the normative act.

The decision to declare the law unconstitutional was taken with five votes in favor and four against, according to sources quoted by Euronews.

In its complaint, the High Court of Cassation and Justice argued that the law violates 37 decisions of the Constitutional Court and "numerous fundamental principles of the rule of law." It said that by deciding to refer the issue to the CCR, "the judges are voicing a clear ‘no’ to any attempt to weaken the independence of the judiciary."

At the end of August, all district courts and tribunals in the country joined a protest against the project that modifies the pension terms.

Magistrates are among the professional categories that receive the so-called special pensions, which are not calculated based only on how much the recipient contributed, as is the case with most pensions. The average gross monthly pension of civil magistrates exceeded RON 24,500 (EUR 4,900) in 2024. More than 87% of the total sum paid for the pensions of civil magistrates in 2024 was covered solely from the state budget, an analysis by Economica.net shows.

In September, the average pension was of RON 2,773 (around EUR 550), according to data from the National House of Public Pensions (CNPP).