Constitutional Court dismisses challenge to linear pension increases
Court rejected the initiative on procedural grounds on 21 October, saying the contested clause had a limited temporal effect and ceased to apply.
The Constitutional Court dismissed a challenge to the law that introduced a linear increase in pensions, deciding the case on 21 October. The Court’s ruling rejected the initiative on procedural grounds, finding that the contested provision had a limited temporal effect and had already ceased to apply.
The provision in question is Article 2 of the amendments to the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance, which regulated linear adjustments of pensions on 1 September 2025 and on 1 March 2026. Under that law, all pensioners were to receive the same additional amount in denars, regardless of the size of their monthly pension.
The equal-amount model prompted legal and public debate because it differs from percentage-based adjustments, where the increase corresponds to a share of each pension. Critics argued the linear approach raises questions about equality and proportionality within the pension system: a low pension receiving the same nominal uplift as a high pension means the percentage gain is larger for the lowest pensions.
What the ruling means for pensioners
The Court did not make a substantive judgment on whether the linear formula is constitutional. Instead, it dismissed the initiative because the challenged clause no longer produced legal effects for future pension adjustments. That procedural outcome does not confirm the law’s constitutionality, nor does it declare it unconstitutional.
According to the decision, there will be no changes to already paid pension amounts and no new payments resulting from the Court procedure. Pensioners who received increases under the previous legal provision will not have to return funds because the Court did not annul prior disbursements.
Future increases will depend on the legal basis in force at the time they are implemented. If lawmakers do not adopt a new provision allowing a further linear increase, adjustments will follow the applicable rules of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance.
The dispute over linear versus percentage adjustments remains a political and fiscal issue: linear raises benefit lower pensions proportionally more, while percentage raises allocate larger nominal sums to higher pensions. Decisions on the model will continue to balance social impact and long-term financial sustainability.
Photo: press material from the event
