The Romanian Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the PSD law by which the special pensions of parliamentarians were eliminated is unconstitutional, according to official sources.
With six votes in favor and three against, the constitutional judges decided that the elected should receive their special pensions back.
According to sources to the mainstream media, the constitutional judges found that the law is unconstitutional due to the fact that the bill was debated and adopted as a matter of urgency by the Parliament, although the procedure was not officially initiated.
The exceptions of unconstitutionality come from courts from all over the country, respectively the Arad Court, Alba, Bistriţa-Năsăud, Cluj, Hunedoara, Ialomiţa, Ilfov, Maramureş, Sălaj, Suceava, Timiş and the Timişoara Court of Appeal.
With the decision of the Constitutional Court, approximately 820 former MPs s who received these special pensions will get their money back for the last 15 months from the period when the payment was stopped.
Because they could not directly notify the Constitutional Court, over 70 former parliamentarians challenged in court the Law 7/2021 to amend Law 96/2006 on the Statute of Deputies and Senators, which eliminated special pensions, invoking exceptions of unconstitutionality. Among them are Adrian Năstase, Petre Roman, Teodor Stolojan, Petre Daea and Gabriel Oprea.
Among the lawmakers who received these special pensions are the current judges of the Constitutional Court.
The special pension allowance obtained by parliamentarians starts from 2,000 lei for MP who had a short term in the period 1990-1992 and can reach up to 12,000 lei for those who held three seats in Parliament.
Special allowance obtained by a Member of Parliament:
- 1 term 4,448 lei
- 2 mandates 8,896 dde lei
- 3 mandates 10,951 lei.
The Parliament adopted the PSD bill that removed the special pensions for deputies and senators in February 2021. On February 17, 2021, the Plenary Session of the Parliament adopted the repeal of the special pensions of senators and deputies. There were 357 votes “for” and 30 MPs did not vote.
The draft law was promoted and voted to the detriment of other two previous bills on the same topic submitted by PNL and USR, meaning the Social Democrats wanted to take the credit for these issue although their colleagues, from the opposition back then, had the same initiative.