Vladescu: Pension system must be reformed this very moment

The pension system must be reformed as it could not bear a six percent deficit of the GDP in 2025, Minister of Public Finance Sebastian Vladescu told a news conference on Wednesday.

'In 2009 1.7 billion euros will be transferred from the state budget to the pension budget and if the pension system is not reformed, two billion euros will be transferred next year and in 2025 we shall have a six percent deficit of the GDP in the pension system,' explained Minister of Labour Mihai Seitan, who attended the above-mentioned news conference.

Seitan added that studies showed that the pension system must be reformed now all over Europe as it risks becoming 'a time bomb.'

In his turn the Minister of Public Finance emphasized the fact that the sustainability of the pension system in Romania must be planned again this moment.

The Government promoted the draft law on the unitary public pension system, which starts being debated by the labour commission of the Senate on Wednesday. It will be debated by the plenum of Parliament during this session.

'The pension law is to be debated all through this session for us to have, when it comes to an end, as we have pledged to the IMF, a pension law that should be applicable in 2011,' also said the Minister of Labour.

The draft law on the unitary public pension system was drawn up considering a number of factors, such as the improvement of the financial sustainability of the pension system, the maintenance of the living standards of the pensioners receiving pensions, the gradual switch to indexation by the inflation rate, the establishment of the pension depending on the contribution that was paid, depending on the salary rise, the reduction of the early retirement, the implementation of some stricter criteria for the disability pension, the simplification of the laws on the public pensions, the integration of the special regimes and the increase in the retirement age and the promotion of the equal treatment

They also considered the solutions meant to apply the conditions referring to the public pensions, which were suggested in the 2009 loan agreements with the International Monetary Fund, with the European Commission and the World Bank,Agerpres informs.