Prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bucharest Tribunal and judges of the Bucharest, Târgu Mureș, Iași, Bacău, Galați, Suceava, and Oradea Courts of Appeal announced on Tuesday, August 26, that they are suspending their activity “indefinitely” to protest the government project to cut magistrates’ special pensions. Also joining them are judges from the military tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Bucharest.
The first to announce the strike in the justice system were the prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bucharest Tribunal. During the strike, they will suspend criminal investigation activities, the supervision of criminal cases, the resolution of complaints, requests, and will generally suspend any other related criminal investigation activities.
After that, judges of the Bucharest Court of Appeal also announced that they will suspend their activity until the withdrawal of the project related to magistrates’ special pensions, with some exceptions, according to Digi24.
Bucharest judges will carry out their “administrative duties,” such as drafting judgments, carrying out verification and regularization procedures of requests, individual study, and continuous professional training.
The strike announcements from around the country come after the Superior Council of the Magistracy, or CSM, the superior body in the justice system, announced the convening of general assemblies of judges and prosecutors – on August 26 and 27 – to debate the amendments made by the government regarding magistrates’ pensions.
At the end of July, Romanian prime minister Ilie Bolojan presented the plan to reform the magistrates’ pension system, raising the retirement age to 65, the standard for employees in the country, and capping pensions to 70% of the net salary. The current formula used for magistrates’ pensions allows them to be calculated at 80% of the gross income, effectively making them higher than the salary. The issue has become a focal point in the executive’s campaign to curtail expenses in the public sector.
Aside from that, according to the government, the reform in the justice system is urgent and necessary, as Romania risks losing over EUR 800 million from the National Recovery and Resilience facility if the modifications are not made. The grants and loans guaranteed by the European Commission hinge on a series of reforms that Romania has to complete, one of them being the magistrates’ pension reform.
Debates between magistrates, however, seem to have already concluded following public statements. On August 21, the CSM emphasized that there is a “hostile public attitude towards judges and prosecutors,” created as a result of statements made by representatives of the governing coalition.
The magistrates’ forum also emphasizes that “any normative or other type of intervention regarding judges and prosecutors should be preceded by real dialogue with the judicial system.” At the same time, the CSM accuses that the government’s proposals to amend magistrates’ pensions represent “an inadmissible attitude that embodies an inflexible position of force and authority of the executive power in relation to the judiciary, unacceptable in a democratic society and specific to autocratic societies.”
At the moment, the average pension for magistrates is around EUR 5,000, while the standard pension is EUR 500-600, roughly 10 times smaller. Moreover, two-thirds of magistrates retire around the age of 49, while most employees in Romania do so at 65.
Immediately after the government’s plans to cut pensions and increase the retirement age for magistrates were made public, nearly 100 magistrates requested permission to retire for fear of losing their pension.
The ongoing strike may worsen relations between the justice system and the government. According to the legislation in force, “prosecutors, judges, personnel of the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs and units subordinated to these ministries, personnel of the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service, military personnel within the Ministry of Justice, as well as those in units subordinated to it, may not declare a strike.”
(Photo source: Serhii Yevdokymov | Dreamstime.com)
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