Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke reiterated on Friday in Baia Mare that military pensions are not special pensions, but long-service pensions that will be paid on a contributory basis, and that the government will continue discussions with the European Executive. to reach an understanding in accordance with the principles also followed by other EU countries.

• “Military pensions have been changed by law and are based on contributions, and at our level we continue to support the reform of the pension system based on contributions and continue to reach agreement on the steps we will take with the European Commission in accordance with the principles that other EU states also follow regarding the military pensions, according to which these are not special pensions, but retirement pensions.”, This was announced by Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke on Friday in Baia Mare.

The Prime Minister also said that the topic of military pensions was recently discussed with representatives of the European Commission who visited Bucharest regarding the state of the PNRR, the discussions focused “on the report presented by the World Bank, a report in which it is written very clearly that military pensions are not included in section of special pensions, and to the section of pensions for years of service”.

Chuke said the World Bank report shows that the situation with military pensions “is the actual situation in all EU countries”.

The prime minister also said that during a press conference in Brussels after meetings with European officials, including the president of the European Commission, he said that one of the topics discussed was the 9.4% pension cap GDP can be replaced by another indicator of financial discipline, which is practically provided by the PNRR.

Prime Minister Chuke receives an annual pension of 200,000 lei from the army

It will be recalled that Prime Minister Chuke receives more than 200,000 lei in annual pension from the army.

According to the latest property declaration, in 2020 Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke had an army pension of 214,990 lei, which is lower than the same year’s income of more than 166,000 lei (148,446 lei allowance for the period when he was Minister of Defense and another 17,683 lei as Prime Minister).

• WATCH THE PRIME MINISTER’S INSTALLATION HERE

European Commission: the 9.4% ceiling is part of the pension reform / Special pensions also include military

The statements of Prime Minister Čuke on Friday became a reaction to the clarification of the European Commission regarding Romania’s obligations regarding the implementation of the pension reform.

The European Commission expects that “Romania will continue to work on the implementation of the reform” of the state pension system, which “will be evaluated in the context of the future payment requests” of the country under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNNR), the source said. said the community executive for Agerpres on Friday.

The ceiling of 9.4% of GDP for pension costs “is part of a measure to reform the state pension system. This measure involves the adoption of a new law on the pension system,” which “will replace the current pension law (Law 127/2019).”

“The Annex to the Council’s implementing decision endorsing the evaluation of Romania’s plan states that “The objective of the new law should be to maintain stable total public pension expenditure (including all existing public pension schemes) in the long term (2022). -2070 ) to 9.4% of GDP,” cited sources noted.

They remind that the approval of Romania’s PNRR “provides the main milestones and targets, legally binding, related to the various reforms and investments that Romania must fulfill in order to receive the corresponding payments”.

The sources also said that according to the annex to the implementation decision of the Council on the approval of the PNRR of Romania, the deadline for the adoption of the new pension law is the first quarter of 2023, and the assessment of the implementation of this stage will be carried out by the government. Fee in the context of the request for the fourth payment request.

Sources in the commission also note that “a special milestone, which has a deadline until the end of this year, is related to the review of special pensions, which also include military pensions.” “This is part of the overall reform of the state pension system, which is a key element of Romania’s PNRR. Satisfactory completion of this phase will be assessed in the context of the third payment request,” sources in Brussels said.

At the end of October, Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke said that after discussions in Brussels, it was concluded that “adjustments” were needed to the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR), indicating that there was no time for a review as it would be a waste of time and resources.

He also reported that “in principle” the planned PNRR ceiling for pensions of 9.4% of GDP was discussed.