The government does not give up after the protests announced by the magistrates and keeps the project for justice pensions in its original form

The Government has sent for approval to the Economic and Social Council (CES) the projects in package 2 of fiscal measures, which will be divided into 5 parts. The project regarding the pensions of the magistrates, which will represent in itself a package of the 5, remains unchanged compared to the version placed in public debate on August 14 – which has aroused harsh reactions and protests from the magistrates, which triggered protests by suspending the activity.

If the project is adopted, and then passes the Constitutional Court, it will enter into force from October 1, 2025. By 2036, there are transient norms – the magistrates will be added, gradually, one year and six more months to the retirement age, that is, it will increase gradually. From 2036, the retirement age will be at 65.

The draft on the changes of the pensions of the magistrates sent for approval by the Government to the CES includes the following changes:

• Establishing the retirement age for magistrates at the standard age of the public pension system, respectively 65 years.
• To retire the magistrates will have to be 35 years old. Now, magistrates can retire if they are 25 years old.
• The pension of the magistrates will not be able to be more than 70% of the last net salary collected. Now, it is 80% of the last gross salary collected.
• For the magistrates who are currently in office: the new staggering of the increase of the retirement age for magistrates, by adding an additional period of 1 year and 6 months, until 2036.

Magistrates will be able to retire in advance, provided they are 35 years old, but if they are not 65 years old, an annual penalty “2% until the standard retirement age in the public system” will be applied.

Basically, the project regarding the pensions of the magistrates remains unchanged compared to the one put into public debate on August 14, despite the protests announced by the magistrates, who are unhappy with the changes made.

According to the opinions they have to receive, among which the one from CES and the SCM, which are consultative, the Government is to approve the project in the Government meeting and take responsibility in the Parliament. Once the responsibility is assumed, the opposition can submit censorship motion within three days. If the motion falls, the project is considered automatically adopted.

The package 2 of fiscal measures will be divided into 5 different packages, to avoid any invalidation at the Constitutional Court (CCR), political sources for Hotnews said on Wednesday evening. The plan is that all 5 packages, including the pensions of the magistrates, are adopted the same day, say the hotnews sources. The information was also confirmed by Ionuț Moșteanu, the Minister of Defense, in a statement to Digi24.

The project has generated protests in courts and prosecutor's office, CSM accuses that “seriously affects the independence of justice”

The project generated harsh reactions from the judicial system and led to the triggering of protests by the courts and prosecutor's offices, by suspending the activity.

During the suspension of the activity, the magistrates will judge only the cases considered urgent, both in criminal and civil matters, according to the decisions of the general meetings of the courts that announced the triggering of the protests.

In the criminal matters, the preventive measures, the medical safety measures and the requests regarding the issuance of supervision mandates will be judged.

In civil matters, the measures of protection of minors (approval adoption or emergency placement will be resolved, for example), insurance measures, presidential ordinances in risk situations on minor integrity, granting/establishing medical treatments, international kidnappings, protection orders, suspension of administrative documents. Some courts, such as the Bacău Court of Appeal, have announced that they will also judge the appeals for execution, in administrative litigation.

In the prosecutor's offices, most general meetings were convened for Wednesday, August 27. However, the Prosecutor's Office of the Bucharest Court announced on Tuesday the decision on the suspension of the activity.

During the protest, the prosecutors will suspend the criminal prosecution activities, with certain exceptions. Also, the activity of supervision of the criminal prosecution by the prosecutor in the criminal files, the activities of receiving the criminal files in which the criminal investigation bodies formulate the completion of the criminal prosecution is suspended.

The prosecutors suspend, during the protest, the activity of solving the complaints made against the solutions of non -departure, but also the relations with the public.

In last week's statement, announcing the convening of general meetings to decide on the triggering of protests, the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) accuses that the draft pensions of magistrates “seriously affects the independence of justice, violating the mandatory decisions of the Constitutional Court and of the Court of Justice of the European Union”, as well as the European Union.

“There is no justification of this approach under the conditions in which the reform of the service system was made by Law no. 282/2023, and the proposals presented by the initiator are not the result of any dialogue with the representatives of the judicial authority, but constitute the expression of an inadmissible attitude that concrete an inflexible position, of the power, of the power, unacceptable in a democratic and specific to autocratic societies, ”the SCM said.

What CSM claims:

• “The repeated positioning of the representatives of the parties that make up the ruling coalition which, in an unqualified way, aim to blame the judicial system for the economic and budgetary difficulties that the Romanian society currently faces and to distract from their true causes,
• The intensification of the campaign that different media institutions carry out against the judicial system in order to complete the rhetoric supported by the political factor in order to destabilize the justice system,
• The aggressive promotion, from the area of ​​the same political factor and the media that supports it, of the idea that the intention of the Prime Minister of the Romanian Government to modify the regime of service pensions of judges and prosecutors would actually seek to end some privileges of the magistrates,
• Ignoring the arguments of the representatives of the judicial system and the constant questioning of the status of judges and prosecutors, in the atmosphere of public hatred generated by the irresponsible actions of the political factor, thus creating the major risk of demoralizing the judges and prosecutors in office (…),
• The contempt that some exponents of the political factor or in the media manifest constantly towards magistrates, given that the efforts of judges and prosecutors who exercise their duties with honesty and professionalism (…) are well known.