BRUSSELS – A Romanian MEP was expelled from the European Parliament’s socialist group yesterday, the latest casualty of a cash-for-influence scandal that has forced the resignation of two EU legislators.
The leader of the group, the legislature’s second largest, said he had recommended to Adrian Severin that he quit parliament as well but Mr Severin had refused.
Mr Severin, a former foreign minister, is the third member of the European Parliament to come under fire after journalists from Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper posed as lobbyists and enticed them to agree to amend laws in return for money.
Mr Severin is shown on a video posted on the internet outlining how he put forward amendments to laws at their request, agreeing to send an invoice.
But speaking to Reuters, Mr Severin said he had offered to work as a consultant only because of a desire to share his knowledge.
“I never asked for money for tabling amendments,” he said, calling the incriminating video a “fake” because it combined several conversations and presented them in what he called a misleading way.
Former Slovenian foreign minister Zoran Thaler resigned on Monday and Austrian MEP Ernst Strasser stepped down on Sunday after the Sunday Times report was published.
Mr Strasser was also shown in a video outlining his readiness to lobby for money. – (Reuters)