Pensions and Pensioners

Over 230,000 Romanians who retired after January 1, 2011 will see their pensions increased by some 14 euros by late March. The increase will be implemented by applying the correction index and supplementing points, Romanian Labour Minister Rovana Plumb has told a press conference. The Romanian official has referred to arrears accounting for the months of November and December 2013. Rovana Plumb:

România Internațional, 25.03.2014, 13:20

“As a figure this might not look like a big difference as regards the average increase, which is 14 euros per pension. The accurate application of the correction index was necessary to obtain a better correlation between the income and the pension”.

The increase is in fact the result of a Constitutional Court ruling of last December, forcing the Government to recalculate pensions starting November 2013. The Court noted that the Government had misapplied a correction index, representing one of elements underlying the process of calculating pensions. According to the Court, the index used last year was lower than in the previous years. Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta admitted that pensions failed to meet pensioners’ expectations, although he underlined the Government was trying to recover the losses in the 2009-2011 period. Victor Ponta’s statements have sparked the anger of the opposition. Former allies of the Social-Democrats in the government coalition, the Liberals say Social Democrat leaders are lying, since the recalculation of over 200,000 pensions was decided by emergency ordinance in December 2013.

Liberal MP Mariana Campeanu, former Labour Minister in Ponta’s Social-Liberal Government, helped prepare the move herself. The National Liberal Party claims that as far as increasing pensions is concerned, Prime Minister Ponta takes credit where he deserves none. In turn, MP Claudia Boghicevici from the Liberal-Democratic Party in opposition, also former Labour Minister, claims that any announcement of an increase in pensions is an election ruse, since the Constitutional Court five months ago forced the Government to recalculate pensions after Ponta’s Cabinet had erroneously applied a correction index.

Another lie Prime Minister Ponta and Labour Minister Rovana Plumb are throwing in the face of the electorate, Boghicevici argues, is linked to the annual indexation of pensions. According to the Liberal-Democrat MP, the Government must apply an annual indexation of pensions to reflect changes in the inflation rate and increases in the average salary. In a highly eventful and tense election year, in the run up to the European Parliamentary elections of May and the presidential election due in November, such verbal clashes between the power and the opposition are to be expected.