The law on adopting the Emergency Ordinance 112/2007, amending the other two laws on private pensions, went back to the Parliament, after being rejected from promulgation by president Traian Basescu and sent for re-examination in the legislative chamber. The Senate’s Economic Commission analyzed the Law on adopting EGO 112/2007 yesterday, to be sent to the Labor Commission and then in a plenary session, to be voted.
"The Senate’s Labor Commission shall present the final report on the need to amend or not the Ordinance 112. Then it shall be voted in a plenary session. If the Labor Commission and the plenary session decide against the amendment of the Ordinance, then it can go back to the president in its initial form", stated for www.privatepensions.ro the liberal senator Aron Popa, head of the Budget, Finance and Banks Commission of the Senate.
According to the Romanian legislation, the president can send a law back to the Parliament for re-examination only once, also substantiating his decision. But the Parliament may re-analyze this law and send it back to the president, even without any amendments, thus forcing the president to promulgate it. The normative act enters into force after the president’s promulgation. However, while this legislative process is underway, the normative act (in this case, EGO 112/2007) continues to produce effects (as adopted by the Government).
EGO 112 brings several significant amendments to the private pension laws (mandatory - pillar II and voluntary - pillar III), giving the National House for Pensions and Social Security the role of main administrator of the enrolling process (initial and continuous) and of the participants and their accounts in the mandatory pension system. On the voluntary pension side, EGO 112 stipulates more sanctions for employers who refuse to transfer the voluntary pension contributions, upon the employees’ request and in accordance with the law. These provisions are still in force, as approved by the Government.
Moreover, the Law to adopt EGO 112 was amended with other important provisions, which shall not be applicable until the law is promulgated. Among these, the most significant change is the permission granted to employees to transfer the contributions to the voluntary pension by themselves. At the moment, only employers can make this transfer. For freelancers or independent professions, the law allows for the individual payment.
The law to adopt EGO 112 shall be sent back to the president for promulgation. Still, its wording when resent (and automatically adopted) remains to be seen, just like whether the Parliament shall consider or not the amendments suggested by the president.
