Brussels, 22/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - Revelations by The Sunday Times at the weekend (see EUROPE 10341) have already led to the resignation of two MEPs - Ernst Strasser (EPP, Austria) and Zoran Thaler (S&D, Slovenia). The third MEP on whom a shadow is cast is Adrian Severin of Romania, who has resigned from the S&D Group, as announced by that group on Tuesday 22 March in a press release. The S&D did not therefore have to exclude Severin.
The S&D Group has also requested that Severin give up his MEP mandate, the press release continues. According to The Sunday Times, the former Austrian home affairs minister, Ernst Strasser, the former Slovenian foreign minister, Zoran Thaler, and the former deputy prime minister of Romania, Adrian Severin, had taken the bait set by journalists posing as lobbyists and agreed to table amendments before the European Parliament in exchange for payment.
The three men have denied these allegations but Strasser and Thaler have since left their posts while Severin has decided to temporarily leave his post as deputy leader of the Social Democrat party, the opposition party in Romania, until the matter has been cleared up, AP reports. (S.P./transl.jl)