Court backs Romanian plan to cap judges’ benefits, in win for pro-EU government

BUCHAREST, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Romania’s highest court on Wednesday upheld a government move to raise the retirement age for judges and prosecutors and cap their pensions, delivering a major win for Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s reform drive.

The broad coalition government first tried to change judicial pensions last year to fulfil a requirement for Romania to access EU recovery and resilience funds.

The Constitutional Court rejected the bill in October on technical grounds and the government approved a new one, pushing back the retirement age in the judiciary in stages to the standard 65 in 15 years’ time from around 50 at present.

It also capped judicial pensions at 70% of final gross salary. Judicial pensions, like those of diplomats and the military, are in a special category independent of tax contributions and can reach around 5,000 euros ($5,800) a month, far above the 600 euro national average.

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

The European Commission kept Romania’s justice system under special monitoring for corruption from EU accession in 2007 until 2023.

But since 2023, the pace of corruption investigations has slowed, and a series of high-level acquittals have raised concerns that the fight against graft is losing impetus.

Last December, allegations by some 700 judges and prosecutors of persistent systemic malpractice in the justice system triggered days of anti-corruption street protests.

Since taking power last June, the coalition government has survived six no-confidence votes, mostly over tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at reducing the largest budget deficit in the European Union and preserving Romania’s investment-grade debt rating.

But the four parties have struggled to agree on job and spending cuts in the public sector, and the budget for 2026 has yet to be approved.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Kevin Liffey)