Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Monday evening told the Antena 3 CNN private television broadcaster that he intends to have the new pensions law adopted by the end of the year, so that it will come into force on January 1, noting that the small pensions will be increased first, and the minimum increase percentage will be the inflation rate, write Agerpres.

„We have discussed the principles [for the pensions law – editor’s note]. (…) Both we and the Commission believe that there are very big inequities in the system between very small pensions and very large ones and of course that we are looking – the Commission and everyone – for a social balance. And the fiscal measures too are meant to bring social equity. I cannot increase the VAT while cutting the purchase power of both those who have a RON 1,000 pension and of those who have a RON 100,000 pension, equally. No one accepts such a thing in a social Europe” said Ciolacu.

He said that he discussed the general pensions law with the Minister of European Funds, noting that the small pensions will be the first to be increased and cannot be increased by the same percentage as the large pensions.

When asked about the fact that some pensions will increase more and others less and what the increase percentage will be, Marcel Ciolacu specified: „The minimum percentage (by which the pensions will increase – n.r.) will be the inflation of the respective year.”