The project related to the special pensions of the magistrates is to be voted on Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies. USR accuses that “PNL and PSD are doing a purely electoral approach”
The draft law that provides for the gradual increase in the retirement age of the magistrates by 2045 is to be voted on Wednesday, April 23, in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, as the first forced, after today it has been favorably approved by the deputies from the budget and work committees.
The Budget Commission in the Chamber of Deputies approved the project with 25 votes “for” and 3 abstentions on Tuesday. Both the parliamentarians of power and those of the opposition agreed that the changes made by the project proposed by the ruling coalition are needed.
Finally, the commission for work also gave a favorable report for the adoption of the project, with a majority of votes and 5 abstentions. On Wednesday, April 23, the law is to be voted in the Chamber of Deputies.
The USR representatives of the Commission for work say, however, that the draft law is just a campaign trick.
“The law is just an electoral trick because it has tricks inside it to make it unconstitutional,” said Oana Țoiu, USR deputy, a member of the work commission. The same opinion is her party colleague, the deputy Alin Stoica.
Their reaction comes after the USR has submitted a series of amendments to the draft law, which were rejected by the commissions. According to a statement of the party, the purpose of these amendments was to “correlate the articles in the draft law with the decisions so far of the RCC”.
USR amendments, rejected
The amendments include the staggering of the standard retirement age, so that the gradual increase of the retirement age is predictable.
In the current form, one -year differences between two magistrates lead to a difference of up to 16 years when it comes to the moment of retirement, USR reports, which contradicts a decision of the Constitutional Court.
The USR also proposes that the pension of the magistrates be at most equal to the net classification allowance from the last month of activity, without taking into account other revenues such as bonuses or money for the leave not made.
“The PSD-PNL coalition has given the measure of his desire to solve the situation of the special pensions of the magistrates: zero! It is a purely electoral approach. Although they had the opportunity to correct the bill adopting the USR amendments, they chose to continue with a clearly unconstitutional proposal,” says USR Deputy Alin Stoica.
The representatives of the party have transmitted that they will support the amendments in the plenary sessions, both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate.
What provides for the law
The leaders of the PNL-PSD-UDMR-Minorities coalition submitted at the beginning of the month a draft law that proposes to increase the retirement age of judges, prosecutors, magistrates from the CCR and the High Court and the legal specialized personnel from the beginning of next year and to decrease the calculation ceiling to 65% of the revenues.
The draft law was submitted after the Coalition candidate, Crin Antonescu, says he asked the leaders in a coalition meeting to modify the law so that the magistrates in the future at the age of 65, “like all citizens”.
He argued the request by the fact that at this moment “at least 230 million euros are blocked in PNRR”.
Thus, the new project introduces a new provision, that the judges must be 48 years old when they retire, not just the 25 years of seniority, as provided by law now.
The project received a negative opinion from the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) on the grounds that the legislative initiative “has the potential to seriously undermine the functioning of the judicial system”, mainly by affecting human resources, that the European Executive has not requested in any way to modify the conditions of retirement of the magistrates and that the amendment of the law has no justification.
If the law submitted to the Parliament will be adopted, starting with 2026 the retirement age for magistrates will gradually increase, until 2045, when the age of retirement will reach 65 years:
Moreover, the project also provides for the decrease of the calculation ceiling from 80%, as it is currently, to 65% of the average monthly income before the last two years. The purpose is to reduce the gap between “service pensions and state social insurance pensions”, according to the project.
The government gave up, in March, the progressive taxation of the non -state part of the special pensions, such as the pensions of magistrates, police and military, in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court of December last year. Thus, it was returned to the single tax rate of 10% for the amounts that exceed the non -taxable ceiling of 3,000 lei, just as in the public pension system based on contributivity.
At this moment, 230 million euros from PNRR are blocked because Romania has not made the special pensions reform.
