A number of national courts of law published a joint statement in protest at the reduction of the social guarantees of judges. The judges propose that the Superior Council of Magistracy should request the Constitutional Court to establish the constitutionality of the exclusion of social guarantees, IPN reports.

The public statement published on the Facebook pages of a number of courts says the independence of the judicial system is ensured not only by enshrining it in the Constitution, but also by respecting the independence, effectively realizing the rights of judges by ensuring and keeping social guarantees and by showing respect for the act of justice.

The judges regret the adoption of the law by which the social guarantees of judges were actually annulled given that by two judgments passed earlier, the Constitutional Court declared the attempts to exclude the same guarantees unconstitutional.

The bill to amend the law on the status of judge was adopted by Parliament on December 4, 2020. It was promulgated on December 21 and published on December 25, 2020.

Under this law, the retirement age for judges as of July 1, 2021 will be 50 years and six months and this will rise gradually to 63 years. Each year the retirement age will increase by six months.

Also from July 1, the general seniority for judges will be at least 20 years and six months and seniority as a judge will be at least 13 years that will be needed for obtaining the right to pension. Each subsequent year, the general seniority and seniority as a judge will rise by six months until general seniority of 34 years and seniority on the job of 15 years are reached. The pension will be equal to 55% of the average monthly salary. For each full year of work outside general seniority, the pension will rise by 3%. Also, the pension cannot exceed 80% of the average monthly salary.