The government has again assumed responsibility

The Romanian government has assumed responsibility for the special pensions reform.

Daniela Budu, 03.12.2025, 14:00

The government in Bucharest on Tuesday again assumed responsibility for the bill on the reform of the magistrates’ pensions. The deadline in the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience has not been met although a 231 million Euro installment is hinging on it. The government hopes however that if the bill comes into effect, the European Commission will unblock the third installment within the PNRR.

In the meantime the law can be challenged through a censure motion or at the Constitutional Court as it happened in autumn when the Court disputed the first initiative of amending the law and obtained a rule of unconstitutionality as it lacked the consultative approval of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM).

This time the document has the CSM’s negative opinion! Under some provisions of the law, the retirement age of judges and prosecutors is going to increase to 65 years, a year added to each generation and the pensions will no longer exceed 70% of the last net salary.

Ilie Bolojan: Unlike the first draft, the bill is expanding the transition period from 10 to 15 years. That means each generation will have to work a year more so that the retirement age may gradually increase from 50 up to 65 years. The retirement age will increase in the following 15 years. One cannot find pensioners at the age of 48-50 anywhere and there is no pension as big as the last salary anywhere in the civilized world. And you know the pension was even bigger than that.”

The need for social equity was the main argument the Prime Minister invoked before the senators and deputies, together with the sustainability of the pension system, the need for a balanced labour market and the accession of major European funds within the PNRR.   

Ilie Bolojan: This proposal responds to an aspect of social equity and is correcting an injustice accumulated all these years. The draft’s second effect is that it puts the economy on healthy foundations, as we are ranking on the last but one place in Europe in terms of the number of active citizens involved in the economy and we must have the guarantee of a sustainable pensions system in the following years. Last but not least it meets a need related to the idea of accessing European funds. Correcting this injustice is one of the conditions Romania has assumed and a PNRR landmark. And once the procedure of assuming responsibility has been kicked off, we believe the conditions have been met so that Romania may collect the money retained.” 

The opposition MPs have come up with 42 amendments to the draft, but the Executive has rejected all of them. The AUR has announced it is not going to table a censure motion against the government and will not challenge the document at the Constitutional Court as it supports a fair retirement system for all social categories.

(bill)