Government approves new pension law

The Government finalized the draft law on pension, which will be submitted to the Parliament to pass and had in view the application solutions of the public pensions conditions, as proposed by the loan agreements concluded in 2009 with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission (EC) and World Bank (WB).

According to the Premier, out of the total number of 180,000 beneficiaries from the special pensions, only 15 percent will have the incomes diminished. PM Boc mentioned that pensions of round 1,500 lei would rise slightly.

'In Romania, there are about 5.8 million pensioners, and 180,000 of them get special pensions. For about 85 percent of those getting special pensions, namely the police, the army, by excellence, the pension's quantum will not be affected. I refer here to the pensions of the military worth up to 3,000 lei, for instance, which will not be diminished, but, the smaller ones ranging between 1,400-1,500 lei will be slightly higher,' PM Boc said.

Boc explained the mechanism through the fact that the principle of contributiveness will be enacted, namely the people to retire will earn pensions proportionally big to the contributions they were paying to the pension fund, and they will no longer receive the amount the state currently contributes to the special pensions.

Romania's Prime Minister said that the draft law on pensions drawn up by the Government does not break the principle of the non-retroactivity because those who have already been paid big special pensions will not have to pay back the extra money they got.

PM Boc also stressed that the new law is aimed at a stricter control of the early retirement and of the pensioning on medical grounds. He added that in the next years money will have to be transferred from the state budget to the pension budget, and expressed his opinion that by 2011 this figure will decrease to 500 million euros and that there will be a progressive offset.

'In 2011 the pension will rise as follows: the pension point will be 100% pegged to inflation, to which adds a real growth by 50 pct of the gross average wage per economy,' Boc specified.

Pensioning age - 65 for men and women, starting with 2030

Pensioning age is gradually rising up to 65 for women, on par with men, but starting with 2030, according to the pensions law draft, stated on Wednesday, at Victoria Palace, Labor Minister Mihai Seitan.The official pointed out that the first step is to rise women's pensioning age from 58 years and nine months, at present, to 60 years and men's from 63 and nine months to 65 years till 2015. Referring to the Army, Police and special services staff, according to the future pensions law, the pensioning age will rise from 55 years for men and women, as currently, to 60 years till 2030.At the same time, the new law will further stipulate the exemptions also included by the current legislation as regards those working in special conditions, as miners or people exposed to a radioactive environment, with a 10-year cut of the pensioning age.He stressed that due to its accession to the European Union Romania cannot add new special jobs categories.