Prime minister Marcel Ciolacu declared on Thursday night for Romania TV private broadcaster that starting from 2024, small pensions will rise following recalculation, while large ones will stagnate, calling on retirees to compare the amount stated on the pay slip with the nationwide average pension, Agerpres reports.
"What bothers me is that we always talk about retirees as if these people were a burden. (...) There are people who collect RON 1,500 and, whenever there is talk about the budget, the question pops up where the pensions will be supplemented from. But what's your issue with the people's pensions? Even the Commission advised us: 'Do something about it, because the amounts are too small'. This is why we have the 13.8 percent increase as of January 1, 2024, and the pension recalculation from September 1. Through recalculation, small pensions will grow, and big ones will stagnate. People went into retirement under different legislations. There are far too many inequities and that's what we are trying to do through the new pension law finalized this year, we're trying to close these inequities," Ciolacu said.
Asked about the discrepancy between ordinary pensions and those collected by retirees from the judiciary, Ciolacu said: "I cannot change anything from the past. The present is a consequence of the past. What can we do now? (...) Small pensions will be recalculated. I cannot strip someone of a right acquired in the past, I don't have this competence, it's not constitutional. What can I do by law? Those pensions are no longer increasing. (...) The indexation is just for the contributory part. Special pensions are no longer increasing by a single dime. (...) I cannot compare a pension of RON 40,000 with one of RON 1,500. That's enough. Each of us must look in the mirror, see where Romania stands, what the average pension in Romania is and what's the amount stated on their pay slip."