Ilie Bolojan says that his project to eliminate special pensions “takes into account the CCR decisions” / the reasons why the Court has rejected the amendments in the past
Ciocănel by the judge. Photo: Dreamstime
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Tuesday that the special pensions reform will target the amount of special pensions so that the pensions of the magistrates will reach “in an area of normality”, but also to keep the privileges of the magistrates who are now in the system.
Ilie Bolojan says that he has taken into account the current legislation regarding pensions, but also the past decisions of the RCC who have declared several unconstitutional bills, so that the special pensions reform that will be included in the tax packages can be implemented.
“I made a proposal that takes into account the basic principles and the formulas in the Romanian legislation and those related to the decisions of the Constitutional Court. In fact, the proposal is that the value of a magistrate is of maximum 70% of the last net salary, so not 80% of the gross,” said the Prime Minister.
Ilie Bolojan also spoke about how the pensions will be calculated: “The actual calculation is made referring to the gross income. A percentage of 55% of the gross income in the last 5 years, but not more than 70% of the last net salary.”
In addition, he also spoke about how the future law will introduce a series of transient provisions that prevent the departure of the magistrates who have fulfilled the retirement conditions in the system.
“We have today a situation in which there are magistrates who have fulfilled the standard retirement conditions and so that they do not leave the system these proposals are complemented by transient provisions that allow those who work in the justice system and meet the retirement conditions to retire after the old law and to work as much as they want to have the court, and to work in the court, and so that we do not the prime minister explained.
Why were the projects unconstitutional so far
In the past, the subject of the elimination of special pensions reached the table of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), and the draft law aimed at eliminating were rejected by the constitutional judges. Ilie Bolojan claimed on Tuesday that the old decisions of the RCC were analyzed so that there are no more constitutionality problems in the current changes.
The CCR has rejected other laws of laws on similar projects, in the past, bringing a number of arguments such as:
- The fact that the magistrates need these pensions-because throughout their careers a series of rules are imposed, such as prohibiting the right to strike or the prohibition of the right to be elected in the Chamber of Deputies, Senate, as President of Romania or in the local administration bodies, as well as the right to be elected in the European Parliament.
- An acquired legal right would have been affected
- The independence of justice would have been affected
- Discrimination between categories of pensioners – in 2022 a draft law was declared unconstitutional that provided for the elimination of special pensions only for parliamentarians
- Irregularities related to the law adoption procedure by Parliament
- The law was created “without any documentation or foundation, research or impact study”
- No previous CCR decisions were respected on the same subject
Most recently, in December 2024, the CCR declared unconstitutional the progressive taxation of special pensions. According to the Court, the law that would have introduced the progressive tax for these pensions would have created “the premises for the pension to be permanently discussed and subjected to annual recalculation”.
