The Constitutional Court (CC) has declared inadmissible the complaint filed by the deputies of the “ȘOR” political party Marina Tauber and Reghina Apostolova regarding the law on raising the retirement age. The ruling was issued on 6 September.

According to the inadmissibility decision, the High Court does not consider that “the right to early retirement for long career is illusory, since it allows people who have not reached the required retirement age to receive a pension based on their accumulated contribution period”.

“(…) With regard to the disproportionate nature of the contributory contribution period of five years for men and three years for women, in addition to the full contribution period laid down in Article 42(2) of the EC Treaty, the Court of Justice has held that (1) of the Law, the Court holds that this measure is not arbitrary or manifestly wrong and falls within the margin of discretion granted to the legislature in the field of social protection”, the document states.

On 13 January 2022, the “ȘOR” political party announced that it had challenged the law providing for an increase in the retirement age at the CC. The authors of the complaint claimed that the law, which establishes, among other things, the increase of the retirement age, is “scandalous and anti-popular” and contains “a series of fundamental violations of human rights, provided for by the Constitution of Moldova”.

On 6 December 2021, the bill providing for the introduction of early retirement for long service, the so-called “long career pension”, the retention of the formula for raising the retirement age and the modification of the pension indexation formula was voted in final reading by 53 PAS MPs. At the time, dissatisfied with the changes to the pension law, socialist, communist and “ȘOR” deputies blocked the Parliament’s gallery, armed with various placards. They chanted: “Shame!”, “Lies!”.

Early retirement for long service
According to the amendments, a new type of pension has been introduced – the long-service pension. This means that people who have a longer period of contribution than the standard period will be able to retire at any age. Thus, the entitlement to an early pension for long service is granted to people who have completed 5 years of contributory service for men and 3 years for women more than the prescribed period. For men – 39 years; for women – 35 years and 6 months;

Return to retirement age
From 1 January 2022, the standard retirement age for men is 63 and from 1 July 2028, the standard retirement age for women will be 63. The attainment of this age for women will be achieved by increasing the standard retirement age by 6 months annually, according to a phased approach.

Pension indexation formula
The pension indexation formula has been changed. Pensions will be indexed once a year, on 1 April, in a fixed amount. On 1 April, the pension increase will result from indexing the average pension amount by 50% of the previous year’s real economic growth. The fixed amount is set by the Government.

Full insurance period
According to the draft, from 1 January 2022, the full contribution period for men will be 34 years. The same formula will apply to women from 1 July 2024.