Polish president okays pension overhaul law, but will send it to tribunal

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski signed off on Friday on a pension reform that critics say amounts to nationalisation, but aides said he would send the law to a constitutional tribunal for checks.

The law, which transfers all Polish government bonds held by private pension funds into a state vehicle, was designed to offset public debt and allow more scope for borrowing, but critics said it stores up trouble for later years.

“The president decided to sign the bill, but he also decided to direct it to the tribunal,” Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, a presidential aide, told a media conference.

“The president considered various stances: the issues of a balanced budget on the one hand and the widely discussed constitutional values on the other. The discussion showed that the opinions are divided,” he added.

The bill was approved by Poland’s parliament this month, but the final vote belonged to the president, who could either sign the bill or reject it and send it back to parliament.

Komorowski earlier criticised the bill for increasing risks for future pensioners, but signalled he would most likely not block the law, saying that the overhaul was necessary to keep the country’s public finances on a stable footing.

“The president considered the issue of budget balance or the public finance safety, after he listened to the opinion of the finance minister about the necessity of implementing the bill,” Irena Woycicka, another presidential aide said.

The government has already prepared a 2014 budget assuming the pension overhaul will come into force at the beginning next year.

Constitutional experts say that the bill will be enforced as soon as it is announced, while the tribunal’s decision could be expected in a year at the earliest.

“It would be definitely difficult to reverse the legal consequences. I am not sure if it will be possible to return the money back to the private pension funds,” Piotr Winczorek, a constitutional expert said.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Pawel Bernat; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Polish president okays pension overhaul law, but will send it to tribunal