PMP leader Tomac: Special pensions - a theft, hopefully they are scrapped

Chairman of the People's Movement Party (PMP) Eugen Tomac said on Wednesday that special pensions are a theft, commenting that it's incredible that someone with 30 years length of service collects a pension of less than 1,000 lei, while politicians who serve two or three terms in Parliament pocket as much as 13,000 lei in pension.

"In Romania, 4.5 million people receive pensions below 1,000 lei. We are glad that the bill whereby PMP proposes the scrapping of all special pensions has cleared the Senate. It's incredible that someone with 30 years length of service collects a pension of less than 1,000 lei, while politicians who serve two or three terms in Parliament may collect between 4,000 and 13,000 lei in pension. The fact that PMP's legislative initiative on the scrapping of special pensions has cleared the Senate is a good signal and we hope that the Chamber of Deputies, which is the decision-making House, removes special pensions altogether. (...) Politicians are here to serve the community and we don't need special laws to establish this special pension regime for politicians. We proposed that only former political prisoners, war veterans and those who fought in theaters of operations should receive special pension," Tomac said in Parliament.

He added that an analysis conducted by PMP has shown that war invalids get a pension of 259 lei, whereas, if the pension were calculated by the method proposed by PMP, they would collect over 8,000 lei.

The bill repealing the provisions on the special pensions of MPs, diplomats, parliamentary staff, court auxiliaries and the Ombudsman cleared the Senate on Wednesday by tacit adoption.

"On the date this law comes into effect, the provisions on the pensions of civil aviation professional flying staff, pensions for Court of Accounts personnel, the public service pensions of the members of Romania's diplomatic and consular corps, the age limit allowances for deputies and senators, civil service pensions of specialist auxiliary staff of courts and prosecutors' offices attached thereto, of the staff of the National Forensics Institute, civil service pensions of parliamentary civil servants, and civil service pensions of the Ombudsman's institution shall be repealed," the bill stipulates.

The legislative initiative is signed by all PMP lawmakers and is next to enter debates in the Chamber of Deputies.AGERPRES(RO - author: Dana Piciu, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Maria Voican)