Govt maintains position on judges retirement, says spokes

Budapest, February 17 (MTI) - The government, in its reply to European concerns over Hungarian legislation, maintained its position that rules governing the retirement of judges should be in line with general pension rules, government spokesman Andras Giro-Szasz told public Duna Television on Friday.

Giro-Szasz said that the new rules applied not only to judges but to prosecutors and public notaries as well. He argued that so far judges had enjoyed positive discrimination by retiring at the age of 70. All other civil servants had in the past retired at age 65, he noted.

Moreover, judges had the option of deciding whether to continue working or retire, Giro-Szasz said.

The new rules require public servants to retire at the age of 62.

Asked if Hungary would seek legal remedy at the European Court if the European Commission refused Hungary s reply concerning the retirement of judges, Giro-Szasz said that the government would "examine the Commission s reply and formulate its position accordingly".

On the subject of the salary of the central bank governor, he said the government s standpoint was applying the general cap on civil servants pay was not discriminative to judges.

Asked about concerns that the salary of the central bank governor could not be legally reduced in the middle of his term, Giro-Szasz referred to the example of Lithuania, where the parliament applied a 30 percent cut in 2011 due to the economic crisis.