Pensions of magistrates. Bolojan announces what is the “substantial change” compared to the first project of the Government rejected by the CCR. “I hope that all of us who have a responsibility do what we can to avoid losing money from the PNRR”

The project on magistrates' pensions is ready, and the Government will assume responsibility for it in the Parliament after receiving the opinion from the Superior Council of the Magistracy, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Wednesday. He asks the CSM to issue the opinion for the project earlier than 30 days, which is the deadline established by the CCR, in order not to exceed the date of November 28, established by the European Commission so that Romania does not lose 231 million euros from the PNRR.

The Prime Minister said, in an interview for ȘtirileProTV, that compared to the project for which the Government assumed responsibility in Parliament on September 1 and which was rejected by the Constitutional Court, there is “only one substantial amendment”.

The retirement age of judges and prosecutors will increase to 65. In order for all magistrates to retire at 65, a transition period is needed in which the retirement age is gradually increased. The transition period established with the representatives of the magistrates at the last meeting at the end of the week is 15 years, compared to 10 years, which was provided for in the project rejected by the Constitutional Court, explained Bolojan.

“This request was made by the magistrates (…). We considered that it is one that could be accepted, therefore it is included in that project. (…) This is the main change. There are two or three technical aspects, but they do not affect the substance of the problem,” said Bolojan.

The other main provision – capping pensions at a maximum of 70% of the last net salary – remained in its original form.

What happens if the CSM does not approve the project quickly? “It's quite a risk to lose the money from PNRR”

Bolojan said that these changes have the “support” of the Coalition and that the Government will ask for the opinion of the Superior Council of Magistracy.

“It is true, according to the decision of the CCR, the CSM has 30 days at its disposal. Considering that there are no important changes, the request that we will make to the CSM in the subsidiary is to issue us an opinion, no matter how they consider it, favorable or unfavorable, within a reasonable period, shorter than 30 days, if possible, so that at the end of next week, when we have a deadline to comply with this milestone related to special pensions, we can start the hiring procedure of the Government's responsibility on this project, in such a way that this parliamentary procedure can be finalized in the first days of December.

In the conditions in which we will not receive this opinion, we will have to wait for the deadline that the CSM will give and only after we receive this opinion we will be able to start this procedure”, declared the prime minister.

Asked what will happen if the CSM does not give its opinion before the deadline of November 28, imposed by the European Commission for the reform of magistrates' pensions, Bolojan said that “there is a rather high risk of losing this amount of money from milestone no. over 231 million euros”.

Asked if he believes that “the magistrates are aware of this aspect”, the prime minister answered: “I hope that all of us who have a responsibility to find a solution to solve the problem and avoid losses for Romania do what belongs to us these days”.