Despite opposition's vocal protests, Romania's lawmakers pass special pension bill

With more than two-thirds of the votes, Romania's Chamber of Deputies, as the decision-making chamber, passed the so-called "special pensions" bill in the form amended to fit the Constitutional Court's recommendations, Economica.net reported.

The ruling majority admitted that the bill is far from perfect but pointed to the regulatory restrictions highlighted by the Constitutional Court. The opposition, in turn, claimed that the bill actually prolongs magistrates' privileges for another 40 years.

Besides the political rhetoric, the "special pensions" bill misses to a large extent its two targets: mitigating the budgetary impact of the pensions paid in excess to past contributions and establishing a sort of social equity. And this is what the European Commission will evaluate when assessing whether the country met the target under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism.

"The current taxation [enacted by the bill] barely scratches the surface of the large sums. With a pension of RON 22,000, the supplementary tax levied will be around RON 1,600," explained UDMR deputy Miklos Zoltan, quoted by Digi24.

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