Romanian PM says magistrates' pensions are an urgent financial and social problem

Tackling magistrates' pensions represents a milestone in the PNRR on which hundreds of millions of euros of funds depends on, and it is also a major social problem due to the social sense of injustice it creates, prime minister Ilie Bolojan told B1 TV news channel, expressing his hope that the Constitutional Court (CCR) "will close this topic" at its next meeting on October 20.

CCR has twice deferred ruling on the law on magistrates' pensions drafted by the government and approved by lawmakers. The bill envisages lowering the cap on pensions to 70% of the latest net wage and gradually increasing the retirement age to the standard retirement age within ten years.

Magistrates eligible for retirement at this moment preserve their rights under the existing regime even if they decide to retire at a later moment, under the law.

"Settling the topic of magistrates' pensions is a milestone, therefore a promise that Romania has made in the past years, on which an amount of over EUR 200 million depends, [money] which Romania has not received at the moment [...]. In total, the three milestones [that Romania has deferred under PNRR] are worth over EUR 800 million, which, indeed, will not be received unless we meet the milestones. It is a fairly important amount," Bolojan told B1 TV.

The prime minister also added that society no longer agrees with early retirement of magistrates (or other categories) at the ages of 48-50, with pensions equal to the last salary, and that this situation is perceived as a social injustice and is considered abnormal, with no similar examples in other European countries.

"People do not support, it's not that one politician or another wants it, they simply do not support having social categories, that they are magistrates or not magistrates, who retire at 48-50 years old, who have pensions as much as their last salary, because it is a matter of social injustice and no matter how we look at it, there is no support for such a situation and it is abnormal from all points of view, because there are no such situations anywhere in Europe," explained Bolojan.

(Photo source: Gov.ro)