While still resisting pressure to resign from his European Parliament (EP) post, MEP (Romania) Adrian Severin has resigned from the Social Democratic Party. Victor Ponta, the party leader, had threatened Mr. Severin with being expelled from the party if he did not resign himself.
As mentioned last week, Mr. Severin was caught by journalists from the British newspaper The Sunday Times, along with two other MEPs (Ernst Strasser – Austria and Zoran Thaler – Slovenia), who were supposedly willing to sell their services by supporting amendments to legislation for up to €100,000. Severin has denied any wrongdoing, however, and has refused to give up his seat in the EP.
According to a statement on their website, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is updated with the information published in the Sunday Times. We evaluate the information to see if an investigation in this case is in our area of expertise.
Mr. Severin reportedl had 5 meetings in total with the journalists, although he had previously declined to introduce a previous amendment concerning waste storage. According to Mr. Severin, I committed nothing illegal and these allegations are false.
While Ernst Strasser and Zoran Thaler have resigned from all of their mandates, in order to clear their names without putting pressure on themselves, Mr. Severin has refused to do so.
For the original story from Romania-insider.com, please click here. Further information for this story was obtained from here.
The photo of Mr. Severin comes from the first link above.
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