PNRR revision sent to the Commission, without a maximum limit on pension expenditure

The threshold of 9.4% of GDP in the PNRR regarding pension expenses was removed from the proposal to amend the plan submitted to the European Commission, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced yesterday.

"You know very well that the threshold has been removed, following discussions with the President of the European Commission. We are also going to finalize the pension law because we have a partnership. It is incorrect. How the PNRR was sent to the Commission is without 9.4%. He would not have been touched anyway. The problem is that we cannot condemn the future. By 2030, it would not reach 9.4% of GDP. GDP increases. It is normal. It is related to a higher nominal, but it was my duty to negotiate and have this discussion with the Commission", said Marcel Ciolacu, in a press conference held after participating in the opening of the school year.

Regarding the amendment of the pension law, the head of government specified:

"The past few days, I also had discussions with the World Bank, which is the consultant to the Ministry of Labor and the European Commission on the pension law. There are three options. Negotiations have already started in parallel with the closing of special pensions, let's have the pension law as soon as possible".

The Prime Minister also spoke about the amendment of the Fiscal Code, which will be taken up in Parliament by the Government. The draft normative act would be put in decision-making transparency in the coming days and the entire decision-making process will take place in a maximum of two weeks.

"I think that this week they will be uploaded on the Government's website, in transparency. Then they get their opinions through the Government meeting, then they are submitted to the Parliament. The procedure is a week or two. There will be nothing hidden. I have also heard that someone wants to make a motion of censure against me, but in fact it is a trick, so that no one knows what is there. Fake! There will also be days for amendments", explained Marcel Ciolacu.

Regarding the transformation of meal vouchers into a sum of money given to employees, the prime minister declared himself dissatisfied with the companies that issue these vouchers.

"It's a proposition because the companies that issue these vouchers have still made quite a commission, in my view. 3% on issuance, 3% on collection, from the information I have. If we don't understand that we can't have an exceptional profit and maybe even within 1% and we have two employees, I don't accept such tricks anymore and then I will leave an alternative", Prime Minister Ciolacu pointed out.

He specified, however, that the alternative of turning these vouchers into a sum of money will only exist for meal vouchers, not for holiday vouchers that would be issued by Romanian Post or another public company.

Regarding meal vouchers, the Employers' Organization of Hotels and Restaurants, HORA, yesterday sent an open letter to Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in which he requests to keep meal vouchers as they have been in Romania for over 25 years, on specific voucher cards which more than 3 million employees already use.

"We do not understand the absurd measure by which it was decided to grant meal tickets in cash and we ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, to keep the meal tickets as they have been in Romania for over 25 years, on the specific ticket cards on which over 3 million employees are already using them. Do not create a risky situation in which the only definite mass of 3 million people is called into question," the document reads.

Hora representatives claim that the said meal cards are given to employees to eat at lunch, and if they turn into money, the said liquidity will end up in other areas of the economy, such as gambling.

"According to an analysis of recent financial data carried out by Frames, the business of companies in the area of food service (COD CAEN 5610) could register a decrease of more than 6 billion lei in 2024 by adopting the measure to also allow the award in cash of meal tickets. (...) If all these measures are abandoned and only money is given, just out of the desire to collect more money in the budget, in the end people will save the respective amounts or use them as we often see, unfortunately, to games of chance and others," the Hora press release states.