Romanian Senate To Re-Discuss Pension Law Early November

All members of the Senate's standing office agreed Tuesday to have the labor committee draw up a reexamination report on the bill by October 26 and hold plenary debates on November 2 or 3, said senate quaestor Ioan Chelaru.

Romanian President Traian Basescu last week sent a letter to Senate Chairman Mircea Geoana, calling for the speedy adoption of the pension bill, which is a condition of the International Monetary Fund for Romania's bailout loan and also a prerequisite for the adoption, within the legal deadline, of the state budget and the social security budget for 2011.

Before the president's intervention last week, senators of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party had called for an urgency procedure for the reexamination of the pension bill, but the opposition-dominated standing office had rejected their request.

The pension bill was sent back to Parliament for reexamination by President Basescu, who requested lawmakers lower the set retirement age for women to 63 instead of 65.

The reexamination and final adoption of the bill, which aims to overhaul the country's public pension system, could have been delayed for a long time, as the Constitution does not set timeframe obliging the Parliament to reexamine a bill. Romania was supposed to have adopted the pension bill by the end of September.

If you liked this story, please follow MEDIAFAX.RO on FACEBOOK »

The content of mediafax.ro is for your information only. Republishing or using this content is forbidden without express consent of MEDIAFAX. For this consent, please ask for it by mail at vanzari@mediafax.ro.