The Constitutional Court (CCR) postponed a decision regarding the reform of magistrates’ pensions to February 11, invoking the need “to study more thoroughly” a report submitted on Thursday, January 15, by the High Court. The top court judges were initially supposed to rule on the issue on December 10, but postponed the decision to December 28, then 29, and later to January 16.
The High Court, led by controversial judge Lia Savonea, claimed in the report cited by CCR that the reform championed by the Ilie Bolojan government effectively “cancels the service pension.” The Court also challenged the same reform in December before the Constitutional Court.
The normative act would fundamentally change the way retirement works in the judicial system, raising the retirement age from 48–50 years to 65 years, with a transition period of 15 years. It also introduces an increase in length of service, from 25 years to a minimum of 35 years, and the service pension would be capped at 70% of the last net salary, whereas currently it is equal to the net income of the last month of activity.
The reform was met with extreme resistance by magistrates.
“All calculations show, under all hypotheses, as we will present, that the service pension will be lower than the contributory one […]. The Court draws attention to the fact that this is no longer a reform of special pensions, but a confiscation of magistrates’ rights, a situation without precedent in a member state of the European Union,” the High Court claimed in a press release cited by Biziday.
This is not the first postponement that the magistrates’ pension reform faced. The Constitutional Court was initially supposed to rule on the issue on December 10. At that time, CCR judges postponed the decision until December 28.
On December 29, however, the judges appointed by the Social Democratic Party, namely Bogdan Licu, Mihai Busuioc, Gheorghe Stan, and Cristian Deliorga, refused to enter the deliberation room after previously leaving the CCR session to block the adoption of a decision. As such, the CCR president set the next meeting for January 16.
Romania was supposed to adopt the pension reform project on November 28, 2025, according to an agreement with the European Commission. The reform is part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, and corresponds to EUR 231 million in funding.
Commenting on the situation, European funds minister Dragoș Pîslaru stated that “all these postponements, besides the fact that they have taken us outside the deadlines we had with the European Commission in the PNRR, show an intention to truly annoy the population [on the part of] a handful of magistrates.”
In December, the Recorder documentary ‘Captured Justice,’ released on December 9, showed how a structure coordinated and controlled through alleged benefits and penalties handed out by High Court president Lia Savonea and her allies led to the capture of the entire judicial system over the past year. The group went on to free high-profile politicians and businessmen, some of them already with a final sentence. The investigation fueled major street protests in Romania against Savonea.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea)
Leave a Reply