Nicușor Dan, on the reform of magistrates' pensions: “You try to separate two people who are fighting and you take it from both of them”
The President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, says that he is “caught in the middle” in the conflict between the government and the magistrates, amid attempts to reform service pensions. The head of state made the statements in the context of the debate on the modification of the magistrates' retirement system, which involves increasing the retirement age and reducing the amount of pensions.
Nicusor Dan thinks he can “prove the magistrates”. PHOTO presidency.ro
The first reform project was rejected by the Constitutional Court of Romania, and a second approach is also to be analyzed by the CCR. Asked, in the show “40 questions with Denise Rifai“, from Kanal D, if he thinks he can “prove the magistrates”Nicușor Dan gave an ironic answer.
“That's not my intention. It's like in life when you try to break up two people who are fighting and you get it from one and the other”the president said.
In the same context, the head of state reiterated the position expressed at the end of August, emphasizing the high workload of Romanian magistrates. “These people were overworked”said Nicușor Dan.
The president believes that the reform of special pensions is possible, but will be achieved with difficulty. “With difficulty, we will reach a balance”he said.
At the end of August, Nicușor Dan declared that in recent years Romanian magistrates have worked two to three times more than their colleagues from other European states, making a comparison with other professions that benefit from service pensions.
“Unlike many other categories that have a service pension, so-called special, Romanian magistrates actually worked much more than their counterparts from European countries. Compared to an aviator from Romania, he works as much as an aviator from Spain, a policeman from Romania works as much as a policeman from France, a military man from Romania works as much as a military man from Germany.
Magistrates from Romania worked these years two-three times more than their counterparts from European countries”declared the president of Romania at the time.
