Life Will Have Us Level Retirement Age By 2030 – Romanian PM

Chamber of Deputies Speaker Roberta Anastase said that the decision of the head of state to send the public sector unitary pension bill back to the Parliament represents a chance for the opposition to correct its behavior. She referred to recent events that took place in the Lower Chamber during debates on the pension bill, when opposition parties refused to vote on the bill and left the room.

Romanian President Traian Basescu said Thursday that he would send the unitary pension bill back to the Parliament, requesting that the standard retirement age be set at 63 for women.

The pension bill has been contested by opposition liberals, social democrats and conservatives. The social democrats have filed a criminal complaint against Anastase, accusing her of rigging the vote on the bill.

Basescu said he has no objections with regard to the bill’s legality, pointing out that it was given the green light by the Constitutional Court and approved by the heads of both chambers of Parliament – Anastase and Mircea Geoana, Senate Chairman and member of the Social Democratic Party.

The president noted however that the bill provided the same retirement age for both women and men – 65 years. Despite his firm support for equality of chances and equality of treatment for both genders, said the president, women have a harder time, so they should be allowed to retire sooner.