Asked by Digi 24 on Monday evening whether the European Commission is demanding a 20% tax on special pensions in Romania, Finance Minister Marcel Bolos admitted that there is such pressure on the government in Bucharest.

Marcel Bolosh spoke about the state of negotiations with the EU institutions regarding fiscal and budgetary measures, listing what the austerity project includes, noting that he hopes for agreements in the Coalition in a few days.

Unhappy with Marcel Cholaku’s announcement that the government would take responsibility for budget measures, the Liberals decided to support this approach, but without knowing what the measures were.

According to HotNews.ro sources, the decision was made on Monday morning at a meeting of the PNL leadership, where the party leader was going to announce the conditions that the panelists set for the assumption.

What Cholaku said about the discussions in Brussels regarding special pensions

“Both my colleagues and I believe that a new pension law is needed, and it has become a legislative priority in the combined groups of the Social Democratic Party and for the Ministry of Labor at the moment. I would like the new pension law to enter into force on January 1. We have to intervene, we have this obligation as a state to close this big gap as much as possible (between pension levels – no), – said Čolaku, stressing that both the officials from Bucharest and those from Brussels know that in the current there are many inequalities in the legislation that regulates the field of pension provision.

Marcel Çolaku emphasized that he had not yet received a response from European Commission officials regarding the lifting of the 9.4% GDP ceiling for the pension budget, saying that this aspect was still being discussed by technical groups.

“In the Commission, I spoke about the principles, I also spoke about the cancellation of that 9.4, because no European state has provided a percentage for pensions. I think we don’t mind being stuck at the average European level of pension growth. In any case, 9.4 per cent, to be clear, we would exceed it after 2030, but this is still an assumption for the Commission, and we have to be responsible even after we are no longer involved in politics. I believe that this is the right approach,” the prime minister also stated, clarifying that he “agreed” together with European officials that this percentage of 9.4 is “incorrect.”

Regarding special pensions, Çolaku said in response to a question that during meetings with European officials, “absolutely nothing concrete was discussed about the law on special pensions”, and experts will discuss this topic next week.

“The tax increase concerns special pensions from the part where there are no contributions. If we cannot apply retroactively and we cannot create social justice and there will be higher pensions than you had in the activity, I think there is no problem if it is increased for this category, given the decision of KOR, taxation is increased. This is my opinion as the leader of the Social Democratic Party,” Čolaku added.

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