Pension eligibility for diplomatic staff: cumulative service in Foreign Trade Department counts toward 15-year requirement under Law No. 216/2015

art. 3 alin. (1) şi (3) din Legea nr. 216/2015, art. 521 alin. (3) din Codul de procedură civilă; Pension eligibility for diplomatic staff: cumulative service in Foreign Trade Department counts toward 15-year requirement under Law No. 216/2015: 216/2015 extend to former members of the Romanian diplomatic and consular corps who served at least 15 years total in the Ministry of Foreign Trade (including its predecessor Department of Foreign Trade), provided they accumulated a minimum of 4 years in permanent overseas missions with diplomatic or consular grades, without requiring 15 years of continuous service specifically as a formal member of the diplomatic and consular corps. The dispute concerned the scope of eligibility for service pensions for diplomatic personnel, specifically challenging whether time spent in the administrative trade department could be counted toward the pension-qualifying seniority for those who later held diplomatic or consular ranks abroad. The decisive legal basis was the interpretation of Articles 3(1) and 3(3) of Law No. 216/2015 regarding the granting of service pensions to members of the diplomatic and consular corps, clarifying that the statutory benefit is not limited to strict current or continuous formal membership in the diplomatic corps but includes qualified cumulative service in related foreign trade and diplomatic capacities.