USR: PNL Gov't prefers not to give OUG to repeal special pensions

The judges of the Constitutional Court are postponing the ruling on the draft law aimed at repealing special pensions, "pushing" the referral for May 6, in the context of the state of emergency, because "the PNL [National Liberal Party] Government prefers not to give an OUG for the elimination of these categories of pensions and is showing no signs that it is considering our proposal to tax 90% of the special pensions in payment that exceed a certain level," Save Romania Union (USR) said on Monday.

"Parliament hardly passed a draft law in January 2020 to repeal special pensions, but not before the PSD [the Social Democratic Party] and the PNL accepted the introduction in the text of provisions with high chances to be contrary to the Constitution. Predictably, the Ombudsman and the High Court of Cassation and Justice immediately attacked the project at the CCR [Constitutional Court of Romania]. Since then, we have been waiting and waiting, because the CCR judges are ruling postponement after postponement, invoking the state of emergency. Now, after the last postponement, the referral regarding the law that would repeal the special pensions has been pushed precisely on May 6. And, most likely, there will be yet another postponement, because the state of emergency extends until May 16," the USR writes on Facebook.

USR mentions that during this period the beneficiaries "continue to receive pensions worth thousands of euros". At the same time, the USR criticizes the Government for not taking measures in this regard.

Save Romania Union recalls that, immediately after entering Parliament, its MPs spoke about the need to eliminate special pensions and that in 2017 they submitted bills in this regard: one strictly for the special pensions of the parliamentarians, the second for the abolition of seven categories of special pensions and capping the pensions of magistrates and the military.