On February 10, the Cabinet approved a draft law for Romania's public pension system that would equalize the retirement age and contribution requirements for men and women, change the calculation of "special pensions" for certain public-sector workers, reduce the incentives for early retirement, and improve the disability assessment process. If approved by Parliament, the law is expected to come into force on January 1, 2011. According to the government, the law is aimed at reducing the growing budget deficit, which reached 36.4 billion lei (US$12 billion), or 7.2 percent of gross domestic product, at the end of 2009.

Under the draft law, the retirement age for women would gradually increase to 65 by 2030. This extends the provisions of the current law, which gradually increases the retirement age to 65 for men and 60 for women by 2014. Currently, men can retire at age 63 and 9 months and women at age 58 and 9 months. In addition, the draft law would equalize the contribution period required for a full pension at 35 years for men and women by 2030. At present, men can retire with a full pension with 32 years and 6 months of contributions, rising to 35 years by 2014; women can retire with a full pension with 27 years and 6 months of contributions, rising to 30 years by 2014. (The minimum contribution period for a reduced old-age pension will continue to gradually increase from 12 years and 6 months at present to 15 years by 2014, pursuant to existing legislation).

Other provisions of the draft law include-

- Changing the calculation of "special pensions" paid to certain public-sector workers including members of Parliament, judges, and policemen. The new calculation would link benefits to a worker's lifetime contributions, instead of the current benefit formula, which is equal to a percentage of wages in the month (or 6 months for certain occupations) immediately preceding retirement. Approximately 180,000 out of 5.8 million public-sector pensions are special pensions.

- Reducing the incentives for early retirement. Workers retiring before the full retirement age would have their pensions reduced by 45 percent, rather than the current 30 percent. According to government figures, the number of workers taking early retirement has tripled since 2001.

源: "Romania Aims for Pension Reforms by December," IPE.com, October 9, 2009; Government of Romania press release, February 10, 2010; "Romania '09 Budget Gap at 7.2% of GDP, Below IMF Cap," Dow Jones Business News, February 15, 2010; "Early Retirement Sanctions: Romania Ups Penalties for Early Retirement to 45% from 30%," Mediafax News Brief Service, February 18, 2010; "Labour Minister: Quarter of Disability Pensions Illegally Obtained," Rompres, February 19, 2010.