Romania’s top court upholds a law raising judges’ retirement age to 65 and capping pensions, a key win for the pro-EU government’s reform agenda.

BUCHAREST: Romania’s Constitutional Court has upheld a government law to reform judicial pensions. The ruling is a significant victory for Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s pro-EU coalition.

The law raises the retirement age for judges and prosecutors from around 50 to the standard 65. This change will be implemented in stages over 15 years.

It also caps judicial pensions at 70% of final gross salary. These special pensions, which are independent of tax contributions, can reach around 5,000 euros per month.

This far exceeds the national average pension of approximately 600 euros. The reform is a condition for Romania to access EU recovery and resilience funds.

“The reform of special pensions has been much requested by Romanian society and we are achieving a great step towards equality,” the government stated.

The European Commission kept Romania’s justice system under special monitoring for corruption from 2007 until 2023. However, the pace of high-level corruption cases has since slowed.

A series of acquittals have raised concerns that anti-graft efforts are losing momentum. Allegations of systemic malpractice triggered street protests last December.

Since taking power last June, the coalition has survived six no-confidence votes. These votes were mostly over tax hikes and spending cuts.

The government’s measures aim to reduce the EU’s largest budget deficit. They also seek to preserve Romania’s investment-grade debt rating.

The four-party coalition has struggled to agree on public sector cuts. The national budget for 2026 has yet to be approved.

 The Sun Malaysia