European Parliament lifts immunity of Romanian MP Adrian Severin

The European Parliament decided today to lift the parliamentary immunity of Romanian deputy Adrian Severin, excluding the restriction of his personal freedom. The move comes after Severin, who doesn’t hold an affiliation, was accused of taking bribe and peddling, according to articles published by the Sunday Times in March of this year. According to a resolution drafted by European deputies it is mentioned that “it is not the competence of the EP to decide on the whether the deputy is guilty or not, or on the legal actions taken for the facts alleged against him.”

At the end of March, the Romanian National Anticorruption Division filed an action against Adrian Severin, based on the information that in between December 2010 and March 2011 he used his EP deputy position to take a EUR 100,000 payment from representatives of a consultancy firm presenting themselves as Taylor Jones Public Affairs to support in the EP an amendment to the 94/19/CE directive on warranty systems for deposits. The amendment looked at the reimbursement term of deposits holders in case of bankruptcy.

 The resolution of the European Parliament was adopted through a free vote.