Romania’s Austerity Laws Published In Official Journal

The two austerity laws were forwarded to President Traian Basescu for promulgation, after the Parliament eliminated the articles that stipulated pension cuts, recently declared unconstitutional by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Monday evening, the joint committee for legal matters in Romania’s Parliament unanimously adopted favorable reports on the austerity law package and eliminated the articles slashing or recalculating public pensions.

The committee eliminated the provisions which reduced pensions and remuneration for caretakers of disabled pensioners by 15%, those which set the pension point at 622.9 lei (EUR1=RON4.3688), those which involved the recalculation of magistrates’ pensions and other articles which made reference to the unconstitutional provisions.

The Parliament adopted Tuesday the report on the law aimed at reestablishing the budgetary balance, with 321 votes to two, as well as the report on the pension recalculation law, with 323 votes to 24 and three abstentions.

Romania’s Constitutional Court ruled last Friday that some of the austerity measures for which the Government received a confidence vote in Parliament are unconstitutional, namely those referring to pension reductions.