Economic and Social Measures

Public pensions will be raised by 5% as of next year, the Romanian Labour Minister Rovana Plumb announced at a meeting with representatives of trade unions and pensioner associations, in Cluj, together with the Minister for Social Dialogue Aurelia Cristea.

“We will continue to implement corrective measures, and more importantly, to enforce the current legislation properly, so that starting on January 1, 2015 pension benefits will be raised by 5%. We will also consider increasing small pensions as of next year”, Rovana Plumb said.

The Labour Minister also announced that the number of pensioners has almost come to equal the number of employees in Romania, which makes it possible for the public pension system to be supported.

According to Rovana Plumb, all pension-related measures are part of a so-called corrective package, by which the Government intends to address a number of decisions, made by Emil Boc’s Cabinet during the economic crisis and which are now regarded as unfair.

The Minister mentioned that as of 2015 all employees will earn at least the minimum national wage of around 200 euros, as opposed to the current situation, where some people make less than the minimum national wage because of disparities in salary systems.

She also added that in the forthcoming period one of the Government’s priorities would be to create 70 thousand new jobs for young people.

Meanwhile, Government and National Bank officials will take part in Brussels next week, for the first time, in talks with the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission.

The talks will prepare the second budget amendment of the year, which will include a 5% reduction of social security contributions paid by employers.

The law has been endorsed by Parliament recently, after the head of state returned the bill for reconsideration in late July, on grounds that the measure was not sustainable.

According to PM Victor Ponta, next week’s talks in Brussels will be technical in nature.

The official evaluation of the stand-by loan agreement signed by Romania with the IMF, EC and the World Bank will take place in Bucharest at the end of November.

Earlier this year, in July, the representatives of the international lenders had left Bucharest without agreeing to the measures suggested by the Cabinet, including the lowering of social security contributions.