The leader of the liberal senators, Daniel Fenechiu, declared on Tuesday that the issue of increasing the retirement age is not currently being considered.
"Normal, good people. Healthy in the head. If you have 5 million employees and 7 million pensioners, you will certainly take a measure like this. These are not measures that the prime minister dreams of, they are measures that current studies suggest. You have to guarantee the pension of the one who has retired and then you have to make sure that the Romanian budget supports it," said Fenechiu, asked about the prime minister's statement regarding the fact that the retirement age could be increased.
He added that, at the moment, there was no question of increasing the retirement age.
"You know very well that in Germany it is 67 years, in France - 63 years. There is a trend. That trend will probably affect Romania as well, but, today, with the way things look, with the measures the Government has taken, in the context in which public spending is controlled, I don't believe it. Yes, Ilie Bolojan is a man who says things and says that things can look even worse, in the situation in which they will not look good. He comes and says: I am coming to make a reform, if you stand in my way and don't let me do it, I will leave, but whoever comes can raise your retirement age, higher taxes, because each increase in the deficit means tougher measures later", Daniel Fenechiu also stated.
Regarding military pensions, the leader of the PNL senators said that he considered it necessary to intervene on these as well.
"We tried to do it, because, likewise, the form of respect towards the military had to be manifested, because it is not right for a colonel who retired 15 years ago to have a lower pension than a platoon major who retired a year ago. It is not right for a colonel who retired 15 years ago to have a pension three times lower than a colonel who retired now," said Fenechiu.
Asked if changes would be possible regarding military pensions, Fenechiu said that he had not participated in such a discussion.
"In principle, it's possible. But, as far as I know, it's not a priority for the Government at this moment. If you ask me hypothetically, hypothetically it's possible, but I don't think you should retire an intervention officer or a security and protection officer at 65," Fenechiu added....
He also said that the same system should be applied to military personnel as to parliamentarians, regarding the method of calculating pensions.
"This is their specific problem, but I don't think it's right that, if you retired three years before someone else, you should have a lower pension. (...) It's a problem of equity," Fenechiu mentioned.
Regarding the possibility of increasing the retirement age for the military, Fenechiu said: "It's a discussion, there are military personnel who are in theaters of operations, who are in special forces, police officers who work in the field."
He added that if life expectancy is 72, 73 or 74 years, it is not right for them to be kept working until they are 70.
On Monday, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan spoke about raising the retirement age, so that the population between the ages of 50 and 65 who are caught in the real economy would be in a higher proportion than it is currently.
"From my point of view, we are in a situation where we need more people in the labor market, in the real labor market. And for this, whether we like it or not, we must increase the retirement age, so that, between the ages of 50 and 65, the population that is trapped in the real economy is in a higher proportion than it is today, because there is no one to replace it," said Bolojan, on TVR Info, when asked if the third reform package will also include measures regarding the other categories that have special pensions, in addition to those of magistrates.
He explained that if the retirement age is not increased in general, for all categories, including in the area of ??special pensions, we will reach "a situation of unsustainability of the pension system" in five or ten years.
"Think that our generations, which are 400,000 - 500,000 people in a year, will retire in ten years, and behind them come generations of 200,000 and, practically, if we do not increase the retirement age, in general, in all categories, including in the area of special pensions, we will end up in a situation of unsustainability of the pension system in five years, in ten years. And we must say this, we cannot pawn the future of the generations that come after us, moving some loans to the future or not taking some measures to put things back into a normal structure," Ilie Bolojan also said.
Subsequently, the spokesperson for the Executive, Ioana Dogioiu, stated on Tuesday that the Government is not considering and is not discussing at this time the possibility of increasing the standard retirement age, and, in the interview on TVR, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan referred exclusively to the retirement age of categories with special status in this regard, therefore to the elimination of exceptions to the standard age," Dogioiu explained.
Also, Defense Minister Ionuţ Mosteanu declared on Monday that the Government's package of 3 fiscal measures will not include military service pensions. "Now is not the time to discuss military pensions," Mosteanu stated.
Comentează