The High Council of Magistrates says the new measures adopted by parliament on Wednesday will have “irreparable consequences for the independence of the judiciary and the status of the magistrate”, with the legislature adopting a version different from that given by the CSM in its opinion in 2022, provided that prosecutors and judges can retire until 2028 under the same conditions as before.

The Supreme Council of Magistracy expressed its disagreement on Wednesday with the way the Romanian Parliament “understood to treat the judiciary by adopting measures with irreparable consequences for the independence of the judicial system and the status of magistrates”, after the adoption of the draft law on pensions of special.

• “In the legislative process, there was no honest institutional dialogue between the legislative and judicial authorities, in the sense that the Council’s real opinion regarding the adopted form of the draft law was not asked.
• The legislative authority sent another form of the draft law to the Council, which was approved with comments by the decision of the plenary session no. 187 dated 12/22/2022. The draft law adopted today was successively changed in the committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, having a completely different form from the one approved with comments and introducing new conditions that were not subject to discussion and on which the opinion of the Verkhovna Rada of the Magistrate was not issued. Thus, the draft law, originally submitted and adopted by the first mentioned chamber – the Senate of Romania, did not provide for any age requirement for retirement, but only regulated the minimum length of service by profession.
• Due to the lack of loyal cooperation, the Parliament of Romania ignored the constitutional principles, assuming the generation of obvious negative consequences at the level of the entire justice system.
• As a constitutional guarantor of the independence of the judiciary, the Supreme Council of Magistrates believes that such legislative changes should be based on a real dialogue that includes all the powers of the state to find the best solutions to ensure the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the predictability of the law,” the press release reads. CSM.

Prosecutors and judges can retire until 2028 under the same conditions as before

The CSM is dissatisfied with the conditions in which the draft law has undergone changes compared to the version that the government assumed and agreed with European officials.

More precisely, PSD and PNL parliamentarians introduced derogations and exceptions that postpone the application of the reform for the next 5 years and extend the abolition of special pensions for 20 years.

Thus, according to the new amendments, prosecutors and judges can retire until 2028 under the same conditions as before, that is, regardless of age, with 25 years of experience and a pension in the amount of 80% of the gross allowance and allowances for the last month of activity .

More precisely, modification establishes a five-year grace period for retirees with special requirements.

For other categories of special pensioners and military pensioners for the next five years, the same conditions of retirement, which are provided by the current legislation, apply.

The UDR refused to vote for the bill, saying it did not abolish any special pensions.