“The European Parliament decides to lift Adrian Severin’s immunity…and entrust the President to send this decision, along with the report of the competent committee, to specialized authorities in Romania,” concluded the EP report into his activities.
Severin, former deputy prime minister of Romania, allegedly conspired with two other members of the European Parliament to propose legislation in exchange for money. In March, Severin, Ernst Strasser and Zoran Thaler were caught when they arranged a €100,000 deal with undercover reporters from The Sunday Times pretending to be lobbyists.
As a result, Romania’s National Anti-Corruption Department (DNA) initiated an investigation. Severin suspended his membership in Romania’s Social Democratic Party and from the Socialist party caucus in the European Parliament, but did not relinquish his seat.
Severin has maintained his innocence and has refused to step down even though Strasser and Thaler have both resigned from their posts.
“I salute the EP's decision to lift my immunity because, after months of hesitations and baseless accusations, demagogy and lies, it opens the way to an investigation into a frame-up whose victim, instead of being protected, has been publicly executed, without the presumption of innocence in the right to defend oneself,” he said in a press release.
