Romania’s Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) issued a negative opinion on the new bill regarding magistrates’ pensions. The move is only the latest development concerning a heated issue that led to tensions between the executive and the judiciary branch.
CSM’s opinion is consultative, and the government led by Ilie Bolojan can still take responsibility for the legislative proposal that cuts the pensions of magistrates by 30%. The same proposal increases retirement age from 48-50 to the standard 65.
The president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Lia Savonea, told Digi24 that she will give “a categorical vote against” at the CSM meeting.
In turn, CSM vice-president Claudiu Sandu explained that all courts and prosecutors’ offices voted against the new initiative of the executive, while the minister of justice, present at the CSM meeting, abstained from voting.
“Following consultations with colleagues in the country, both prosecutors and judges recommended issuing this negative opinion on the draft law, so we, being an elected and not appointed body, are somehow indebted to our colleagues to respect their will,” the CSM vice president added, according to Digi24.
He also said that the vote was a “symbolic protest,” meant to draw attention to the legislative inequities brought by the changes.
“In fact, there will be three types of pensioners in the magistracy: the ‘Dragnea era’ pensioners with a pension higher than their salary by 20–25%, the 2023 pensioners with a pension of 100% of the net salary, and the next ones, who will work until 65 and will have such a regulation,” Sandu explained.
Justice minister Radu Marinescu also commented on the CSM opinion, saying that when the status of any professional category is reformed, that category must also be consulted. The government already knew “the opinion of the magistracy” about this reform of special pensions, he said.
Both Marinescu and the CSM vice-president rejected the idea that there is a conflict between the executive and the judiciary.
The new bill on magistrates’ service pensions was published last week, and the CSM had 30 days to issue a consultative opinion. According to the new project, the pension amount for magistrates will be 55% of the calculation base, represented by the average gross indemnities from the last 5 years, but no more than 70% of the last net indemnity. Also, the transition period to the retirement age of 65 will be 15 years, calculated starting January 1, 2026.
Previous talks between the government and representatives of judges and prosecutors in Romania, mediated by the president, failed to reach a consensus.
The first project of the magistrates’ pension reform was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on October 20, by a 5 to 4 vote. The reason invoked by the five judges was essentially a technicality, namely that the government did not wait for an opinion from the CSM.
That the CSM opinion was issued on the new project is important because Romania faces a November 28 deadline to reform service pensions, including those of magistrates. If the deadline is missed, Romania risks losing EUR 231 million in European financing. To prevent that, the government scheduled a meeting adopt the draft law on Friday, exactly on November 28.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea)
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