Romania’s magistrates’ council has accused the prime minister of overstepping his remit by initiating a proposal to curtail inflated pensions for retired magistrates.
The Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) said in a press release that it had received a document about amending legislation for so-called ‘special pensions’ that justice officials are currently entitled to.
The Council said that “this method of ‘consultation’ is outside any legal framework for legislating in the field of justice …. (and) the Prime Minister does not have the competence to initiate such an approach. “
It said that it would not respond to the document calling the move “an illegal procedure.”
Romania’s coalition government has undertaken a series of budget cuts and has hiked VAT from 19 to 21% to reduce a ballooning budget deficit of 9.3%, the largest in the European Union.
For years, the subject of special pensions has generated debate and protests in Romania. There is widespread public anger about pensions that can run to thousands of euros that retired magistrates and retirees from other strategic sectors receive. The pensions are vastly higher than the average pension and are sometimes higher than the salaries that justice officials received when they were working.
