Constitutional Court postpones examination of lawmaker pension issue

The Constitutional Court put off examining the constitutionality of the decrease in the pensions of MPs and the rise in the retirement age for them at the Parliament's request. It will return to the subject in 30 days, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Court decided to examine the two challenges on the matter as one case. The applications were filed by ombudsman Tudor Lazar on October 12, 2010 and member of the 18th legislature Vasile Balan on October 19, 2010. The pension of MP was decreased following amendments to the legislation adopted last year. Earlier, the former lawmakers received a pension representing 75% of the salary of MP, but now it constitutes 42%. The retirement age for government officials was raised from 55 to 62 for men and from 50 to 57 for women. The Parliament's representative to the Constitutional Court Victor Morgoci asked postponing the examination of the challenges as the legislative body is to debate the pension policy on March 31.