Romania voted for the end of old-age pensions specific to members of Parliament, the first step to bring more reforms to the country’s pension system. MPs received allowances again from June last year after a Constitutional Court ruling.
The Parliament of Romania approved the end of their special old-age pension. The allowance country representatives receive will be based exclusively on how much they contribute to the state pension system.
The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Romania held a joint session on June 26 in which they adopted the end of special pensions for members of Parliament. With this reform, the government wants to open the door for removing the special pensions of other categories of workers.
The two political parties forming a coalition government, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the center-right National Liberal Party (NLP), eventually took care of the end of bonus allowances for the elected officials months after it was announced.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the leader of the PSD, reacted shortly after the vote. “This is the first reform I took on as Prime Minister. The next steps are the accumulation of pension and state salary, and the reform of special pensions. […] This government will be about reforms and the economy,” said Mr. Ciolacu, in office since June 15 as part of a rotation agreed by the two largest parties of Romania.
A permanent Parliament commission on the statute of deputies and senators issued a report last week in favor of the repeal with eight votes in favor and one abstention. The abstention belonged to a member of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).
Initiated by the PSD, the bill’s explanatory memorandum for amending old-age allowance for members of Parliament was meant to “remove discrimination against people who receive pensions on contribution” and “a step toward equity between citizens.”
In light of the economic difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the PSD “believes that members of Parliament should be the first to show solidarity and respect in spending public money in order to regain people’s trust in public institutions.”
Romania will have access to substantial funds, 29 billion euros (32 billion dollars) in grants and loans, from the European Union in a Recovery and resilience plan to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, “which also requires reforms,” according to Romania’s leading party.
Earlier today, the president of the PNL, Nicolae Ciucă, announced that PNL’s Political Bureau would exclude party members who don’t vote in favor of the abrogation of the law. PSD members who would have voted against the bill would also be sanctioned.
But it is not the first time Romanian politicians removed the old-age pensions for members of Parliament.
However, in May last year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional because of missed deadlines. Consequently, since last June, hundreds of retired and active politicians have received an allowance from the country again.
For 2022, from June, Romania paid 583 allowances for a total of 19.4 million lei (4.3 million dollars) to MPs. Bonus old-age pensions for members of Parliament can go from 2,187 lei (481 dollars) for 28 months in office to 15,317 lei (3,370 dollars) for senators beyond three terms, according to the Romanian daily Adevarul.
Former PSD MP Eugen Nicolicea, the Association of former MPs representative, told the Romanian news agency Agerpres last week he would bring up the bill in Court if adopted. He argues that these allowances are a measure of economic protection to ensure independence and remove “temptations of corruption and economic pressures.”
The far-right and pro-Russian member of Parliament Diana Șoșoacă, ex-AUR, interrupted the Parliament’s debates several times whistling, ringing a bell repeatedly, and shouting “special pensions are a lie. The law is unconstitutional!”
