Barring people from having both a pension and a state salary, unconstitutional

The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has ruled Thursday that the Government's Emergency Ordinance No. 230/2008, barring people from having both a pension and a state salary, is unconstitutional.

Judges have thus sustained the exception of unconstitutionality of the Ordinance, raised by the Ombudsmen.

Ombudsman Ioan Muraru contested in the Constitutional Court, on January 8th, the stipulations of the Government Ordinance no. 230/2008 on changing some legislative acts in the field of public pensions, state pensions and work pensions, motivating that both salary and pension are private property and barring people from having them both is the equivalent of expropriation.

''According to article 44, paragraph (3) of the Constitution, 'nobody can be expropriated for other reasons than public utility ones, established according to the law, with fair compensations beforehand.' Moreover, the criticised ordinance cannot annul an earned right, as long as the right to pension is guaranteed by article 47, paragraph (2), thesis I of the Constitution'', according to the exception of unconstitutionality raised by the Ombudsman.

AGERPRES