Hungarian Minority Party MP Amends Austerity Law Pack, Proposes Pension Freeze Until End-2011

Frunda, head of the Senate’s committee for human rights, religious cults and minorities, also proposed to eliminate any planned cuts in the budget earmarked for the purchase of medicine, prostheses and other medical devices.

Frunda also pointed out, with respect to the draft law meant to recalculate special pensions, that freezing pensions until December 31, 2011 would bring more money to the state budget than it could be saved by recalculating special pensions. Frunda underscored that if adopted, the Government’s draft law will cause pensioners to take legal action against the state and win all lawsuits because pensions, which are law-regulated as ownership right, can never be cut, not even in accordance with the provisions of article 53 of the Constitution as regards limiting several rights or liberties, a press release of the Senate read.

Frunda stressed that section 1 of article 44 of the Constitution guarantees the ownership right and, according to article 14 of the Convention banning discrimination and article 1 of Protocol 1 protecting proprietorship, the European Court of Human Rights in Buchen vs. the Czech Republic, states that „the notion of asset is defined as any interest of a person, with economic value, therefore, the right to pension and, evidently, the right to salary are assimilated to ownership.”

Another amendment targets to eliminate article 2 of the draft law, which stipulates cutting by 25% the budget earmarked for the purchase of medicine, prostheses and other medical devices.

Romania’s Government has adopted two draft laws over the weekend, for which it plans to seek a confidence vote in Parliament Monday. The austerity plan, which cuts public sector wages, pensions and social welfare benefits, should help the recession-hit country bring its economy on track and convince the International Monetary Fund, which is leading a EUR20 billion rescue package agreed last year, to disburse further installments of the loan.

Romania’s economy is still not showing signs of recovery and the national statistics institute reported Thursday that the country’s first quarter gross domestic product shrank 2.6% compared with the year-earlier period. Romanian economy declined by a sharp 7.1% in 2009, reversing a 7.1% growth in the previous year.

The opposition said it will submit two no-confidence motions, one for each of the draft laws the government wants to pass into legislation.