In brief

  • The Constitutional Court has rejected the challenges brought by several pensioners who sought to have four emergency ordinances declared unconstitutional, ordinances through which the Government twice postponed and reduced the increase in the pension point between 2020 and 2023.
  • Practically nothing changes for pensioners: the amounts calculated at the time remain valid, and the differences “lost” through the postponements cannot be recovered in court on this basis.
  • The ruling is final and generally binding, so it closes this line of challenge for all similar cases still pending before the courts.
Act: Constitutional Court Decision no. 189/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 643 of 4 August 2026
Delivered: 4 March 2026

The Constitutional Court has rejected the challenges brought by several pensioners who sought to have four emergency ordinances annulled on constitutional grounds, ordinances through which the Government twice postponed and reduced the increase in the pension point between 2020 and 2023. Decision no. 189/2026, delivered in March and published in the Official Gazette of Romania almost five months later, confirms that the executive was entitled, by way of emergency ordinances, to postpone or reduce the increases originally set out in the pension law, without infringing the right to property or the right to a pension of those affected. The case reached the Court through nine separate files, brought by pensioners from Brașov, Timișoara, Vâlcea, Galați, Bacău and Harghita, all dissatisfied with how their pensions had been calculated in those years.

All four ordinances at issue, GEO no. 135/2020, GEO no. 8/2021, GEO no. 125/2021 and GEO no. 168/2022, amended, in turn, the same law: Law no. 127/2019 on the public pension system, which was meant to introduce a new pension-calculation formula based on a “reference point” instead of the old “pension point.” However, the law never entered into force in its original form: it was postponed twice and, ultimately, repealed as of 1 January 2024 by Law no. 360/2023, which still governs pensions in Romania today.

What it changes in practice

For pensioners whose cases, pending before the courts, raised exactly this constitutional challenge, the decision effectively closes the dispute: the courts will reject the argument, referring directly to Decision no. 189/2026, without a fresh review on the merits. There will be no retroactive recalculation of pensions for the 2020-2023 period on this basis, and the amounts calculated at the time, in line with the values set by the four ordinances, remain final.

For today’s pensioners, the decision changes nothing in how their pension is calculated: the current system operates exclusively on the basis of Law no. 360/2023, which fully replaced the old law back in 2024. The stakes of the decision are more historical and procedural: it definitively confirms that the Government acted constitutionally when it “cut,” through emergency ordinances, the pension increases originally promised by law, in the name of budgetary balance. The correction index came before the Court again in 2026, this time over the moment when it applies at the initial award of the pension.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

  • Nothing in how pensions are calculated: the four emergency ordinances remain applicable exactly as adopted, and the pension-point values used between 2020 and 2023 are not modified.
  • One avenue of challenge is closed: the argument that postponing or reducing the pension-point increase infringed the right to property or the right to a pension can no longer be used successfully in other similar cases.
  • Case law confirmed: the Court expressly refers to Decision no. 203 of 7 April 2022 and Decision no. 372 of 29 June 2023, which had already settled the same issue in other cases, and finds no new element that would justify a different outcome.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • Legal predictability: it removes the risk of chaotic retroactive recalculations of 2020-2023 pensions, which would have placed additional pressure on the social insurance budget.
  • Courts can resolve similar pending cases more quickly, by referring directly to this decision and to the Court’s earlier case law.

What remains a problem

  • Pensioners whose pension points were reduced or postponed between 2020 and 2023 will not obtain, through this route, any compensation or recalculation of the amounts from that period.
  • The decision indirectly confirms that the Government can repeatedly intervene, through emergency ordinances, in social rights already scheduled by law, which leaves room for similar postponements in the future.

Practical advice

  1. If you have an open case on this subject (challenging the pension-point value between 2020 and 2023): discuss the impact of this decision with your lawyer; the court will most likely reject a constitutional challenge raised on the same grounds, referring directly to Decision no. 189/2026.
  2. Pensions are now calculated exclusively under Law no. 360/2023: the old “pension point” from Law no. 127/2019 no longer has any practical relevance for pensions set or recalculated from 1 January 2024 onward.
  3. Don’t rely on estimates: if you have doubts about how your pension was calculated during 2020-2023, request a certificate with the history of points and applied values from your local pension office.
  4. For complicated individual situations (recalculations, older challenge cases), consult a lawyer specialised in social security law: the Constitutional Court’s decision only settles the constitutionality of the legal provisions, not how they apply to your specific case.

Frequently asked questions

What did the Constitutional Court decide?
It rejected, as unfounded (and partly as inadmissible), the constitutional challenge brought by several pensioners against four emergency ordinances that postponed or reduced the pension-point increase between 2020 and 2023, and found that these provisions are constitutional.
Can I still recover the pension difference not paid in those years?
Not on the basis of this constitutional challenge. The decision is final and generally binding, so the courts will reject similar arguments raised in other cases, without a fresh review on the merits.
How is my pension calculated now, in 2026?
Exclusively under Law no. 360/2023 on the public pension system, which fully replaced Law no. 127/2019 as of 1 January 2024. The old “pension point” from the repealed law is no longer used as such.
Why did it take almost five months from the ruling to publication?
The time between a Constitutional Court decision being delivered and the full reasoning being published in the Official Gazette of Romania varies, depending on how complex the reasoning is to draft. The decision produces full effects and becomes generally binding only from the date of publication.
What happens to other pensioners’ pending cases raising the same challenge?
Courts will generally reject them by referring directly to Decision no. 189/2026 and to the Court’s earlier case law (decisions no. 203/2022 and no. 372/2023), without a fresh review on the merits.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official published form.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 643 of 4 August 2026 8 pages PDF, 83 KB the act starts on page 3

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.