BREAKING: President Iohannis signs the special pensions law

President Klaus Iohannis signed into law the law on special pensions on Thursday.

The Chamber of Deputies adopted on Monday 16 October, with 174 in favour, 81 against, 17 abstentions and two MPs not voting, the draft law amending and supplementing certain legislative acts in the field of service pensions, after bringing it into line with the observations of the Constitutional Court and the European Commission.

In plenary, USR leader Cătălin Drulă said that this law, which only USR will vote against, is the law to maintain special pensions and that the majority has made a mockery of it, being the most defiant form of the draft so far.

In reply, Liberal Florin Roman accused the USR of hypocrisy, while the interim president of the Chamber, Alfred Simonis, pointed out that this law will make these special pensions less unreasonable and warned that if they were cut, it would be unconstitutional and we risk losing 2.8 billion euros from the PNRR.

The law states that „judges, prosecutors, judges of the Constitutional Court, assistant magistrates of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the Constitutional Court, as well as the legal staff referred to in Article 221 para. (1), with at least 25 years of service in these positions only, may retire on reaching the age of 60 and may receive a service pension in the amount of 80% of the calculation basis represented by the average of the gross monthly employment allowances and the allowances received during the last 48 months of service before the date of retirement”.

According to the law, the net amount of the service pension may not exceed 100% of the net income earned in the last month of service before the date of retirement.

„Judges, prosecutors, judges of the Constitutional Court, assistant judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, of the Constitutional Court and the legal staff referred to in Article 221 para. (1) with between 20 and 25 years in these positions only, in which case the amount of the pension is reduced by 1% of the calculation basis for each year missing from the full 25 years in these positions. The net amount of the service pension cannot be more than 100% of the net income in the last month of service before the date of retirement,” the law also stipulates, Agerpres reports.

Persons who have at least 25 years of service only in the positions listed in para. (1) may retire on reaching the standard retirement age provided for by the public pension system and may receive a service pension, even if they are in another occupation at the time of retirement.

„In this case, the service pension shall be equal to 80% of the calculation basis represented by the average of the gross monthly employment allowances and the allowances received during the last 48 months of service before the date of release from office, referred to an active judge or prosecutor, under identical conditions of office, seniority and professional grade. Only persons who have been relieved of their duties for reasons for which they are not responsible are entitled to this service pension. The net amount of the service pension may not exceed 100% of the net income related to the gross income of the last month of activity before the date of release from office, referred to an active judge or prosecutor, under identical conditions of function, seniority and professional rank,” the law reads.

In June, the High Court of Cassation and Justice referred the law to the CCR, and the Court ruled in August that some provisions were unconstitutional.

We will follow up on this story.