Prime Minister Florin Citu: We will not nationalize Pension Pillar II

Prime Minister Florin Citu told private broadcaster Digi24 on Monday evening, that Pension Pillar II will not be nationalized during the government the National Liberal Party (PNL) is part of, agerpres reports.

Asked if the European Commission had asked him to do so, Citu said that the European Commission had expressed concern about the sustainability of the pension system in Romania, but this is not the reason for the stance on the second pillar, but because it is an option of the governing coalition.

"No. Not because someone is asking for something like this. But because this is what we believe, what the entire governing coalition believes. We are not nationalizing the Pension Pillar II! And so that there is no risk of someone doing that, I would like to promise that we will do no such thing (...) I repeat, there is a zero risk for Pension Pillar II to be nationalized during this Liberal government, in the next eight years. There is no such thing, we will never do something like this," Prime minister Florin Citu specified.

He referred to the previous period of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) government, when ordinance 14 was issued, which also targeted Pension Pillar II.

Asked if he recommends people to take out private pensions, the prime minister said that there already are private pensions and there are opportunities for voluntary pensions, and he recommends people to get such pensions because every citizen manages his own money much better than the state can. "They already have private pensions. If they want to invest more, of course there are opportunities. But there is a strategy in the pension law, we will look at it, whether or not it will increase the contribution from what we have," Citu said.