The Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, declared on Monday that he had not received any request from the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) regarding the carrying out of an impact study for the new project of the Bologna Government regarding the reform of magistrates' pensions, Agerpres reports.
"I don't know anything about an impact study. I've also seen discussions in the media about such a possible study being requested. Officially, I haven't received anything at all and I don't know what kind of impact it would be and what kind of study. The Ministry of Justice does not participate in these procedures at the Constitutional Court. (...) If we are asked to do something concrete, what exactly, to what extent it falls within our competence or not, we will see. We act in good faith and in loyal cooperation with state institutions," Radu Marinescu told Digi24.
The Constitutional Court of Romania postponed, on Monday, to January 16, the deliberations on the new project of the Bologna Government regarding the reform of magistrates' pensions, the reason being the lack of quorum for the deliberation session.
This is the third time the constitutional court has postponed a decision in this case.
According to sources in the Constitutional Court, the four judges proposed by the PSD to the Constitutional Court - Cristian Deliorga, Gheorghe Stan, Bogdan Licu and Mihai Busuioc - did not show up at Monday's session. They also left the session on Sunday and did not come to the debates.
The sources also reported that the four judges requested an impact study of this project, but Simina Tănăsescu declared on Monday that the impact study is not relevant in the case of the magistrates' pension reform project.
"It is a majority opinion. I am in the minority opinion that believes that impact studies could be useful in the control analysis, but that is the jurisprudence at the moment. So, impact studies are not relevant in our analysis. I am going to speculate further, if you will. We can think that a revival of jurisprudence would also be possible. I would probably be the happiest if this were to happen. However, in the present case, both the object of our control and the notification that was addressed to us are public. And it can be noted that the aspects related to the impact study are not the subject of this file," said Tanasescu.
The new draft amendment to magistrates' pensions adopted by the Government provides for a phased increase in the retirement age to 65. The amount of the pension cannot exceed 70% of the net allowance received in the last month of activity.
The project received a negative opinion from the Superior Council of Magistracy. Judges and prosecutors requested that their pension be almost at the same level as the last salary received, while Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan insisted that the pension be no higher than 70% of the last net salary received.
The first draft of the magistrates' pension reform was declared unconstitutional by the CCR on October 20, following a complaint filed by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. The CCR reasoned then that the Government had not requested, within the time frame provided by law, an opinion from the CSM, even if this is consultative.
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