Pension Reform – From experts to the general public
Period: July 2013 – October 2014
The pension reform project – from experts to the general public responds to the need for a new public policy to adapt the Romanian pension system to current challenges and future scenarios. The need for this reform is mainly pointed out by the unfavourable employees – retirees’ dependency ratio, that led the Romanian pension system close to collapse. Given the growing unemployment rate and the population aging phenomenon, experts estimate a worsening situation on medium and long term.
A reform of this kind is a sensitive issue for both politicians and the society. A public policy for pensions must reconcile the interests to reduce pension expenditure from the state budget with the right to decent pensions for citizens. Such a policy should be based, on the one hand, on clear statistical data and relevant information on the impact of the measures designed and, on the other hand, on in-depth society debates.
The overall objective of the project is to involve social actors (experts, government representatives, politicians, the business environment, citizens and civil society organizations) in a deliberative process of developing a policy proposal on the pension system reform in Romania. The project will provide the Government with a series of essential information with regard to the pension system reform – the current situation and forecasts, main policy choices, their advantages and disadvantages and views of all stakeholders. At the same time, the project will put the subject on the public and political agenda and will promote the need for reform.
To achieve the general objective , the following specific objectives and activities were proposed:
- Development and promotion of three policy options on pension system reform, based on research of the current situation, stakeholder opinions and trends for the next 10-20 years. A1.1 Research /documentation and A1.2 Presentation of the research and of three public policy options and the launch of the public debate ;
- Involvement of 60 citizens, representatives of relevant institutions, NGOs , trade unions and business environment in a deliberative process on the three policy options, A2.1 Deliberative forum, A2.2 NGOs and trade unions consultation; A2.3 ;
- Promotion of the policy paper on pensions that meets the consensus of stakeholders (politicians, citizens, experts, civil servants, trade unions, NGOs), A 3.1 Chatham House Meeting; A3.2 Establishing a policy document based on the consultations held; A3.3 Public presentation and final debate on the document; A3.4 . Meetings with policy makers.
The project was initiated by the Resource Centre for Public Participation – CeRe, in partnership with the Romanian Centre for European Policies (CRPE), it will stretch over a period of 16 months (July 2013-October 2014) and has a total budget of 155.362,93 CHF.
The project is co-financed by a grant from Switzerland, through the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union.
Value of own contribution is 15.551,83 CHF in cash.