Adrian Severin "one step away from having his immunity removed"

The Legal Affairs Commission of the European Parliament unanimously voted to remove the immunity of the Romanian MEP Adrian Severin, who was involved in the scandal "money for amendments", said a British publication.

The final decision will be made on Thursday in the European Parliament plenum.

A request to remove the immunity of MEP Adrian Severin was sent on 5 April to the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, by the National Anticorruption Directorate in Romania.

The European Parliament plenary vote on the report drafted by the MEP Francesco Speroni regarding the request to remove immunity for MEP Adrian Severin is scheduled for 23 June.

The decision draft states that "the European Parliament decides to remove the immunity of Adrian Severin, excluding the restriction of personal liberty" and "allots the President the job to immediately forward this decision, as well as the report coming from the authorized commission, the competent authorities in Romania and to Adrian Severin".

Within the section "explanatory memorandum" of the document, it is mentioned that on 21 March this year, the National Anticorruption Directorate opened an action against Adrian Severin, deputy for the European Parliament, based on the information according to which, between December 2010 -March 2011, the Romanian MEP would have accepted the offer of a payment of 100,000 euros from the representative of an alleged consulting society which appeared under the name"Taylor Jones Public Affairs".

The money were directed to support an amendment to Directive 19/1994 regarding the deposit guarantee system, amendment related to the term of repayment of depositors in the event of bankruptcy.

Adrian Severin resigned from PSD, but not from the EP

On 21March, the National Anticorruption Directorate became aware of the possible corruption acts committed by the Romanian MEP after the emergence of some audio-video data released by the Sunday Times.

On 28 March, MEP Adrian Severin announced in the meeting of the Executive Board of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), that he resigns from the party.

"Please allow me to step back from PSD, this is a statutory dismissal which cannot break the bonds between us", declared Adrian Severin.

The MEP has been also excluded from the European socialists’ organization.

The other two members of the European Parliament caught on the recordings of the Sunday Times are the former Minister of Exterior in Slovenia, Zoran Taler, and the former Minister of Interior in Austria, Ernst Strasser.

The two resigned from the European Parliament.

Translated by: Manuela Stancu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University