“Romania cannot behave like a wild country because these special pensions exist throughout the European Union,” Investments and European Projects Minister Marcel Bolosh said on Wednesday. He believes that an intermediate solution should be sought in the negotiations with Brussels regarding changes to the PNRR.

• “We are not the country in the EU that invented special pensions, because I don’t think it would be natural for us to be one of the few, if not the only country in the EU to abolish them.
• Here we need to look for an intermediate solution and think of a mechanism that would be balanced, and we should not go to extremes when we say that special pensions are abolished, but, on the contrary, I believe that an intermediate way is needed to get out of this impasse.” , – said Minister Marcel Bolosh.

Bolosh: Romania can say that the legislation does not provide for special pensions, but professional and seniority pensions – VIDEO (min. 1:02:24)

The Minister states that in this regard “the first impasse or the first clarification that we have to have with Brussels is the consistency between the content of the milestone in the PNRR and the provisions of the national legislation”.

This is because, as the EC decision now shows, Romania can say that in national law it does not have “special pensions” as stated in the PNRR phase, but we have “occupational pensions and “long service pensions”.

• “This is the first thing that we have to clarify with the EC, and of course it is very important that this discussion is at the political level, to convey that this issue is one of the nationally important issues, in particular the issue of pensions of national importance, and we cannot have behavior that would lead us out among the member states, being unique with the elimination of special pensions.
• I don’t think it bodes well. I don’t think that the EU government or parliament will make such a decision.” said Marcel Bolos.

Bolosh about the limit of pension expenses in GDP at 9.4%: No one imposed it on us

Marcel Bolosh also showed reluctance to meet the National Program for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) target, according to which total gross public expenditure on pensions should not exceed 9.4% of GDP in the period 2022-2070.

• “No one imposed it on us. I would like to be very clear. We have a set of benchmarks and goals that we have set for ourselves that lead us to situations that do not correspond to the crisis we are going through.
• What a shame it would be for the government to say it can’t index pensions for pensioners because it has a cap that you won’t find anywhere else in the EU and tell people “sorry, we’re sitting and watching”. on this percentage!” “.
• This is unnatural, and I do not think that such a decision of the responsible Government is in question. This is not the only milestone that makes us unique in the EU, and this initiative to hold discussions at the political level seems favorable to me,” Bolos said.

The minister referred to a statement made on Tuesday, September 20, by PSD leader Marcel Čolaku, who said it was possible to travel together with Prime Minister and PNL leader Nicolae Chuke to Brussels to discuss pension increases with European Commission officials. We are talking about GDP spending on pensions, which, according to the PNRR, should not exceed 9.4%.

It is updated