December 27, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 27.12.2025, 20:00
Constitutional Court reviews second special pensions reform project
Romania’s Constitutional Court (CCR) on Sunday is set to review the challenge from the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which contested the government’s second project on reforming the magistrates’ pension system. The law, for which the government assumed responsibility, provides for raising the retirement age for magistrates to the standard 65 years over the next 15 years. Their pensions will also not exceed 70% of the net salary from the last month of activity. The High Court considers, however, that this violates judicial independence and discriminates against magistrates compared to other pension beneficiaries.
Nearly 12,000 people benefited last month from such pensions, granted under specific laws for their field of work. According to the National Public Pensions Authority, nearly half were former prosecutors and judges, with an average pension of about €5,000 for this category. Nearly 800 former diplomats benefited with an average of nearly €1,400; 900 former MPs with over €1,240; 1,300 former civil aviation employees with an average of €2,600; and nearly 700 employees of the Court of Accounts, whose average pension exceeded €2,000. Service pensions were also received by 2,350 people from the auxiliary staff of courts and prosecutor’s offices, with an average of just over €1,400.
Increase in local taxes
City halls across Romania have until the end of the year to set the value of local taxes and fees for 2026, or they risk sanctions including the loss of funds, under an emergency decree adopted by the Government.
In Bucharest, the General Council has set the taxable value of buildings to rise from nearly €300 per square meter this year to €535 in 2026, an increase of about 80%.
Owners of buildings in Timișoara (west) will pay more by the same percentage, as the city hall has also eliminated reductions based on building age and other benefits for certain owner categories.
In Cluj-Napoca (north-west), the municipality will apply increases between 58% and 71% depending on the area, while in Constanța (south-east), the Local Council has approved tax hikes between 50% and 80%, along with rises in other local fees.
Starting 2027, taxation will be based on market value, as per the reform stipulated under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
International arrest warrant for Vlad Filat
An international arrest warrant has been issued for Vlad Filat, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, after a French court sentenced him in absentia to two years in prison and a fine of €100,000 for money laundering – Chișinău media reported Saturday, picked up by Bucharest outlets.
After the French court’s ruling became public, the former PM posted on social media that it concerns the case on dividing assets after his 2012 divorce and that it is politically motivated and heavily influenced by Moldova’s current authorities. According to the Constitution, Moldovan citizens cannot be extradited or expelled. In 2016, Filat was also sentenced to nine years in prison for corruption and influence peddling, of which he served three years.
Medical services e-platform
The new IT platform for Romania’s National Health Insurance Authority, which manages medical services, is partially operational. For now, it is not accessible to the general public, as the large-scale data transfer has not yet been completed.
Health Minister Alexandru Rogobete explains that the system will become fully operational after mid-next year and will streamline the relationship between patients, on one hand, and doctors, hospitals, pharmacies or other medical units, on the other. The data transfer from the old platform to the new one is already underway; “It takes quite a while, and we chose to move the data during this holiday period, when the number of medical services is low and it doesn’t affect medical activity”, Minister Rogobete stated.
(VP)
