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| DEPUTIES EXCUSE TWO COLLEAGUES 14/08/08 |
| (2008-08-14) |
| Last updated: 2008-08-15 14:26 EET |
In a special meeting convened at president Traian Basescu's request, the Romanian deputies on Wednesday vetoed the proposed prosecution of the former premier Adrian Nastase and former minister Miron Mitrea, both members of the Social Democratic Party and accused of corruption.
Romanian Deputies Wednesday cleared two fellow members of the Chamber, accused of corruption misdeeds. They voted against the prosecution of the ex-PM Adrian Nastase and the former minister Miron Mitrea. Leading members of the opposition PSD, they were backed by their party colleagues, who cast a political vote with far-reaching consequences. “Parliament buried the fight against corruption,” “Nastase and Mitrea put the judiciary on hold,” “A blow dealt to democracy” - these are the headlines in Thursday's newspapers in Bucharest, which comment the controversial decision.
While under a European Union monitoring procedure for flaws in the judicial reform, Romania is once again cornered by the EU, which has recently insisted that Bucharest's core problem is the high-level corruption and that political parties should prove their commitment to helping investigations overcome the parliamentary deadlock. To make things even worse, the decision made by the Romanian politicians Wednesday follows the removal of Daniel Morar, dubbed “Mr. Anti-corruption” in Brussels, from the helm of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate.
Unlike Miron Mitrea, who announced he would nonetheless allow judicial procedures to follow their course and give up his parliamentary immunity, Adrian Nastase believes the vote in his favour is a political solution given to a political problem, because, he claims, the probe had been ordered by his political opponents now in power. According to columnist Andreea Pora, in dropping the charges against Nastase and Mitrea, the Romanian MPs made it clear that they think of themselves as a category that enjoys special rights and privileges:
“Politicians actually protect each other from corruption suspicions; they protect each other from being heard in court, and given this precedent, the other files currently pending in Parliament may share the same fate.”
The instruction not to prosecute Nastase and Mitrea is expected to persuade the European Commission that the monitoring of the Romanian judiciary must be carried on. According to political analyst Ovidiu Nahoi, the next country report may affect the activity of Romanian members of the European Parliament, because of its negative findings:
“In the years to come, we might no longer receive seats in the European Commission, as we would have liked and deserved, given the size of our country, its strength and its economic growth rate. So this one vote may entail a serious setback.”
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