ALDE's Tariceanu says Pension Pillar II doesn't dissolve

Chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) Calin Popescu Tariceanu stated on Saturday in Timisoara that the Pension Pillar II doesn't dissolve, but it is endorsed by the ALDE, while the National Liberal Party (PNL) runs a campaign to gather signatures "for something that doesn't dissolve."

"We endorse the Pension Pillar II and there never was a talk about eliminating it, but the PNL runs a campaign to gather signatures for something that is not dissolving. (...) Through the solutions that we adopted this year and last year, I can say that the pension budget deficit diminished by half," Tariceanu stated.

He reiterated the necessity of the Pillar II as an instrument that would ensure a better life for those who reach retirement age, mentioning that Romania's demographic development is not favorable. "Therefore, the state pension budget will be submitted to some major tensions. We don't see the possibility of some substantial increases of the state pensions on a long-term, not in the next period; in the following period we will do everything that we committed to do, through the governing programme," the ALDE leader underscored. 

According to him, in 10-15 years, a population segment will be retired - "decreteii" - and then, there will be a huge pressure on the state pension budget. In this context, Calin Popescu Tariceanu said that the existence of a supplementary saving instrument is very useful.

"The Pension Pillar II is still useful because for a person who has contributed to the Pension Pillar II and reaches the retirement age, can receive the money back, all at once or staggered over a period of time as he/she wishes, but if that person, for various reasons, dies, the amounts that he/she accumulated in the Pension Pillar II are not lost, but they return to the family, to the heirs, while the state pension, even if one has contributed a lifetime, after completing the accounts with the worldly ones, the state no longer pays anything to the heirs," Tariceanu explained.