BRATISLAVA, November 14, (WEBNOVINY) — Speaker of Parliament Pavol Hrusovsky (KDH) will propose freezing the salaries of lawmakers and members of the Cabinet to keep them at current levels also in 2012. The Cabinet should discuss the draft bill on salaries of certain constitutional officials and propose its adoption in a shortened procedure, Hrusovsky said together with Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS) to journalists after their meeting on Monday.
Adopting the bill would mean that salaries of MPs and salaries based upon them would stay the same as this year also in 2012. The only exception will be the salaries of judges as their reduction was already once halted by an injunction of the Constitutional Court. “We’d like to prevent the Constitutional Court from abolishing a freeze on our salaries because of its unconstitutionality,” said Hrusovsky. Radicova also said that were it up to the Cabinet, the measure would be even harsher, yet she has to accept a decision that will have a chance of passing in parliament. “Were it up to the Cabinet to decide, we would propose a 10-percent cut,” said the prime minister, adding that she is not sure whether impossibility to challenge the salaries of the judges is the right thing. Radicova also underlined that judges earn approximately twice the per hour salary of a doctor.
Hrusovsky and Radicova agreed to use a shortened legislative procedure for this draft bill, as the Slovak Parliament is only holding one more session this year, which makes it impossible to adopt any bills for next year in a standard way. Salaries of MPs are based on average income in the national economy. The current government adopted a rule that a salary of MPs would be reduced if the state budget generates deficits and increased if the deficit is reduced. The Finance Ministry estimates that 2012 salaries of the MPs could increase by 652 euros to 4228 euros per month because of the sharp deficit reduction this year. Salaries of judges and Cabinet ministers and the country’s president are calculated as multiples from salaries of MPs. Hrusovsky commented that they do not plan abolishing the so-called Sulik formula linking the salaries to the deficit, as they do not plan practically using it at all. He’d like to use another formula in the future.
SITA