Definition of standard retirement age for survivor's pension eligibility

The High Court of Cassation and Justice, acting in its role for resolving questions of law, admitted the referral from the Ploiești Court of Appeal and established the mandatory interpretation of Article 85(1) and Article 3(1)(v) of Law No. 263/2010, ruling that the "standard retirement age" for the purpose of awarding a survivor's pension encompasses both the standard retirement age set forth in Annex No. 5 of the Law and any reduced standard retirement age permitted by law. The dispute concerned the applicability of specific statutory definitions in social law, specifically whether the eligibility criteria for survivor's pensions should account for accelerated retirement schemes. The decisive legal basis is the interpretation of Law No. 263/2010 (Social Insurance Repartitions), wherein the court clarified that the term "standard retirement age" is not limited to the base statutory age but includes legally reduced thresholds, thereby expanding the scope of beneficiaries under the cited provisions.