Preliminary assessment of the third payment request of Romania (2024)

pensions categories is similar or, in most cases, higher than for the general system. Specifically:

• • For judges and prosecutors, provisions of Law No. 282/2023, Article I.1 establishes

that the minimum contribution period is between 20 and 25 years.

• • For specialised auxiliary staff of the courts and the prosecutor’s offices attached to

them and staff working within the National Institute of Forensic Expertise, Article VI.1 of Law No. 282/2023 establishes that the minimum contribution period is 25 years.

• • For Court of Auditors staff, Article VIII of Law No. 282/2023 establishes that the

minimum contribution period is 25 years.

• • For staff of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps, Article IX.1 of Law No. 282/2023

establishes that the minimum contribution period is 25 years.

• • For parliamentary civil servants, Article XII.3 of Law No. 282/2023 establishes that

the minimum contribution period is 25 years.

• • For military and police staff, Article XIV and Annex 3 of Law No. 282/2023 establish

that the minimum contribution period is 25 years.

The protection of the decisions of the Constitutional Court shall refer only to the pensions of magistrates and not for other categories and shall refer only to the limits explicit in the arguments of the Court.

Romania’s Constitutional Court issued Decision No. 467/2023 introducing limitations to the reform for magistrates. This decision only concerned magistrates. No other category was covered by the decision, implying that the protection of the decisions of the Constitutional Court refers only to the pensions of magistrates. The reform of the pension regime for magistrates was similar in nature to that for other special pension regimes (tighter eligibility conditions, higher retirement age, indexation of pensions on inflation, etc), and exceptions were limited to those explicitly required by the Constitutional Court decision.

Specifically, the Court’s decision establishes that magistrates are the only category keeping a target replacement rate of 80%, and the increase in the statutory retirement age are to be more gradual than for other special pension categories. See provisions (point #110) of the Constitutional Court Decision No. 467/2023 and Article I of Law No. 282/2023.

No special pension shall exceed the income obtained during the contribution period.

Article I and Article VI of Law No. 282/2023 establish that net pensions cannot exceed the net income obtained during the contribution period. This provision applies to judges and prosecutors and specialised auxiliary staff of the courts and prosecutors’ offices, who are the only categories concerned by this issue (special pensions being in some cases higher than the income received during the contribution period).

As such, the reform overall supports the objective of streamlining and reducing expenditure on special pensions, while ensuring they are in line with the contributory principle. That is the main goal of this reform. It is therefore considered that this constitutive element of the milestone is satisfactorily fulfilled. Commission Preliminary Assessment: Satisfactorily fulfilled