The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has called on the Ministry of Labour to publish the World Bank's "Analysis, Impact Assessment and Recommendations for the Reform of Special Pensions".
Special pensions have been a permanent item on the public agenda in recent years, linking to a key milestone in the NRRP, and have always raised problems to which no solutions have been found. That is why the World Bank report is all the more important as it contains potential solutions that Romania needs.
The public should be aware of the details of the report because their implementation could lead to substantial changes in the pension system. We already know that Romania has made a commitment to the European Commission that the new legislative framework will revise special pensions and bring them into line with the contributory principle, but the draft law is still before parliament. Moreover, Romania did not include military pensions in the initial draft legislation, as they are considered 'service pensions', not special pensions, even though the European Commission has called for the same principle of contributory pension to be applied to these pensions.
NRRP milestones are increasingly distant
The Ministry of Labour admits in response to a FACIAS request that the 215th milestone for reducing expenditure on special pensions has not yet been finalised, although the new legislation should have come into force by 31 December 2022. What is more serious is that the failure to fulfil this obligation undertaken by the Romanian state through the NRRP makes it impossible for Romania to receive an instalment of 3.1 billion euros, as the deadline for the funding application is 31 March 2023.
The reply received from the Ministry of Labour also shows that milestone 214, which provides for the entry into force of the new pension law (reform of the public pension system), has not been completed, although the deadline for the new legislative framework to enter into force is 31 March 2023.
Romania has also not received an opinion from the European Commission (EC) on Payment Request No 2 on which €3.22 billion depends. If the EC finds that the Law on the Decarbonisation of the Economy and the Integrity Warners Law (the most problematic milestones) do not meet the conditions of the NRRP, Romania risks losing €1.4 billion of Payment Request No 2, plus the related part of pre-financing, which is another almost €0.2 billion.
FACIAS, according to its statutory purpose, but also through its constant activity over the past 14 years, defends the rights of citizens and seeks to ensure transparency in the functioning of state institutions as a principle of democracy and the rule of law.
Based on the importance of the NRRP for Romania, the The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS) launched the project "Transparency and Accountability - Monitoring the NRRP", which monitors the implementation of investments and reforms established by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and analyses the spending of money from the NRRP (contracts concluded, companies obtaining funds, projects financed, expenditure, etc.).