“It is an institution that exercised a right” / “More attention was welcome”. The reactions of the president and the prime minister, after the ICCJ sued the Government

President Nicușor Dan and Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan reacted on Monday evening after the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ) sued the Government and the Ministry of Finance for postponing the payment of salary arrears won in court by magistrates, and the amounts allocated to magistrates to be used for the social package of measures for vulnerable people.

“It's a complex of phenomena. They don't pay those who generated them 10-15 years ago. They pay those who are currently making decisions (…) Obviously, it's not normal for the state to owe money to some social categories. It's a balance between what you have to do and how much money you have in the budget. It's an institution that has exercised a right, that's what I can state at this moment”, declared Nicușor Dan, answering the journalists' questions.

For his part, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan stated that the responsibility does not belong to the Government and invoked budgetary constraints.

“The Government promoted a budget, this budget was fined in the Parliament and, regardless of the sentence that will be given, but maybe it will be given as the others were given in the salary area of ​​the magistrates, it cannot be implemented, because it was not the Government that finalized the draft budget, but the Parliament of Romania. Greater attention was welcome when you initiate such actions,” said Bolojan to Digi24.

The prime minister added that the situation is related to “budgetary and social sustainability”, given that the state has to pay amounts “that historically come from behind”.

“When you don't have enough money and some amounts have to be paid that historically come from behind, in crisis situations, I personally think you have the moral right to think about certain phasing”, Ilie Bolojan also declared.

ICCJ sued the Bolojan Government for “unjustified refusal” to allocate the money for salary arrears won by magistrates in court

The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) sued the Government and the Ministry of Finance, for “the unjustified refusal to make available to the plaintiff the sums necessary to pay the outstanding salary rights established by final court decisions”. The state has to pay the magistrates 2 billion euros, as salary arrears, following the wave of lawsuits in recent years, the money being paid in installments.

The approach of the supreme court, led by Lia Savonea, comes in the context in which the Government decided to postpone payments this year, and the amounts allocated to magistrates to be used for the social package of measures for vulnerable people.