Speaker Orban: Draft law on pension - salary cumulation must be constitutionally solid

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ludovic Orban, believes that the draft law on the elimination of the pension - salary cumulation, currently in debate at the level of the Government, is necessary, since it has to be "solid from a constitutional standpoint". Asked in Parliament about the negative notice of the Legislative Council on this draft law, Orban said that this council "is not the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR)". "From our standpoint, this type of draft law is necessary, because cumulating pension with a salary in the public sector is not normal. There are many situations, especially where retirement is possible at 45-50 years of age, where, after retiring, they profit from the most beneficial legal conditions, immediately come back in administrations or other state positions and receive both a salary and a pension. Of course, the final form needs to observe other decisions which were made by the Constitutional Court regarding similar situations and we need to make the draft law as solid as possible, from a constitutional point of view, in order to resist a possible challenge at the Constitutional Court," the National Liberal Party (PNL) leader explained. As for the special pensions of mayors, he reminded that allowances are not in pay. He added that there is a team, at both the level of the Ministry of Labor, as well as the level of the gov't coalition, a committee of specialists who are working on the pension law and who are tackling this topic as well.AGERPRES(RO - author: Catalina Matei, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Catalin Cristian Trandafir, editor: Maria Voican)