Reform of magistrates' pensions blocked by the Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court decided, yesterday, with a simple majority, five to four, to admit the complaint filed by the High Court of Cassation and Justice, and declared the law by which the Bolojan government wanted to reform the special pensions of magistrates unconstitutional. Although the official motivation has not yet been published, sources within the institution, quoted by the media, state that the rejection was based on formal defects, namely the lack of the opinion of the Superior Council of Magistracy, a mandatory procedural element when it comes to normative acts concerning the status of magistrates. Paradoxically, the law that aimed to repair a system imbalance was invalidated for a bureaucratic error, not for the substance of the reform.

"Since Law no. 305/2022 establishes a 30-day deadline for issuing the opinion by the SCM, the Government, as the initiator of the criticized normative act, has the obligation to respect it," the CCR said in the press release sent yesterday evening announcing that it had admitted the objection of unconstitutionality formulated by the High Court of Justice.

Given that all other packages of fiscal measures and reforms were considered constitutional by the CCR, the rejection of the reform of the special pensions of magistrates due to the lack of the SCM's opinion, which was mandatory at the time of assuming responsibility, even if this opinion had been negative, seems to be a move made intentionally by the members of the Bolojan Cabinet or, better said, by the PNL-PSD-USR-UDMR governing coalition. Especially since the Ministry of Labor requested, on August 20, the SCM's opinion for the draft law on amending service pensions, according to a document cited by HotNews. Because this opinion did not come quickly, the Ministry of Labor reiterated the address on August 22. But on September 1, Prime Minister Bolojan decided that he could no longer wait for the legal conditions to be met and assumed responsibility in Parliament, without an opinion, although according to the legislation in force, the SCM had 30 days to issue this opinion. The deadline would have been September 19th at the earliest.

The rejected law provided for a significant recalibration of service pensions for judges and prosecutors. The most important change was the capping of the pension at 70% of the last net salary, compared to 80% of the gross salary, as it is currently, and the introduction of a retirement age of 65 years, similar to the public system. At the same time, the minimum length of service for retirement would have increased from 25 to 35 years. The Bolojan government justified these changes by the need for social equity and by the pressure of the reforms assumed in the PNRR, where the reduction of expenses with special pensions represents a milestone of over 200 million euros.

In this context, the CCR decision produced a political and legal earthquake of great proportions, bringing back to the forefront the old tensions between the executive branch and the justice system, and political reactions were not slow to appear.

President Nicuşor Dan reacted quickly, declaring that "the reform of magistrates' pensions remains a priority” and that the rejection of the law should not be interpreted as a failure of the reform, but as a procedural signal that requires a careful review of the legislative process. He stressed that the measure does not represent a position against magistrates, but an attempt to correct "an abnormal provision - the pension equal to the salary - that the political class regulated defectively a few years ago”. In the same message, sent on the X platform, the president announced that immediately after the publication of the Constitutional Court's decision, a new legislative text will be drafted that takes into account today's ruling, so that magistrates' pensions are corrected in a fair way for society.

The political opposition led by AUR has called for the resignation of Prime Minister Bolojan, arguing that the rejection of the law affects the legitimacy of his government. "Resignation - an honorable gesture,” wrote George Simion, suggesting that such a major failure should be politically assumed. Especially since, previously, after assuming responsibility for this law, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan declared that, if the normative act is rejected by the CCR, he will resign from the leadership of the Government.

In the camp of power, however, the position is different. Senate President Mircea Abrudean and presidential advisor Ludovic Orban have conveyed that the Prime Minister has no constitutional or moral reason to resign for a decision of the Court that concerns only the procedure for adopting the law.

"There is no loss of legitimacy and no constitutional basis for the prime minister to resign if a project is declared unconstitutional," reacted Ludovic Orban, while Gabriel Andronache, leader of the PNL group in the Chamber of Deputies, said that the procedure regarding the reform of magistrates' special pensions can be resumed from the very beginning, if the reasoning of the CCR's decision shows that the rejection of the law is related only to formal aspects, not to the content of the law.

Former Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, former judge of the CCR, stated: "If the admission of the notification is based on extrinsic procedural reasons, such as, for example, issues of the CSM's opinion, then the Parliament can resume the law and adopt it, respecting the procedure. If there are intrinsic substantive unconstitutionalities, then the legislative solutions declared unconstitutional cannot be resumed, because there is a principle of constitutional rank",

It is certain that the outcome of this legislative crisis will depend on how the Government will react after the publication of the motivation of the CCR's decision. The coalition leaders have already announced that they will resume the legislative process from scratch, respecting all mandatory opinions and preserving the essence of the reform. The financial stakes are major: the PNRR milestone related to special pensions is worth 231 million euros, and the delay in adopting a compliant law risks blocking the next tranche of European funding. Investment Minister Dragoş Pîslaru warned that the loss of these funds would mean a serious setback for the infrastructure and digitalization projects undertaken through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.