The Chamber of Deputies, Romania’s Parliament lower chamber has passed the draft law repealing special pensions by 247 votes, none against and 21 abstentions.
The bill provides for the repeal of special state pensions, except for the pensions for the military and police staff.
Therefore, former MPs, magistrates, pilots and public servants such as leaders of county councils and mayors will no longer receive special pensions.
The MPs rejected amendments submitted in the Labour Committee by the Social Democrat MP Adrian Solomon, those that intended to annul public allowances for artists and athletes.
Other rejected amendments would have abolished pension supplements for self-employed Romanian performing artists, as well as supplements for state pensioners who are members of creators’ associations legally established and recognised as legal persons of public utility, and merit allowance.
The Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making body in this case.
Over 9,000 former magistrates, court officers, diplomats, pilots, MPs, employees of the Court of Accounts are currently cashing in special pensions, some earning several tens of thousands RON each.
Military and police staff, as well as former Intelligence services employees, 150,000 overall, are not targeted by the law.
Officers of the court have repeatedly protested in the street in the past year against the law that will strip them of special pensions, while the Bucharest Court and Appeal and the Bucharest Tribunal suspended their activity indefinitely last week in protest as well.