Romanian Senate committee overturns pardoning of bribery and influence peddling

The Senate’s Legal Committee rejected amendments to pardon the abuse of power and conflict of interest after only five senators, members of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party, voted in favor, News.ro reported. The Committee also exempted from pardoning bribery and influence peddling, according to Agerpres. The vote comes after the adoption, a day before, of several amendments that granted pardon to detainees sentenced for bribery and influence peddling if they pay the damages they had caused. Former president Traian Basescu, now a Popular Movement Party (PMP) senator, pleaded in favor of pardoning the abuse of power, arguing that this crime is understood in Romania in a faulty manner, allowing it to become an instrument of control of the political institutions, according to News.ro. Basescu gave the example of the Venice Commission, that argues that abuse of power needs to be interpreted “in a narrow sense and applied with a high margin.” The Senate is expected to debate and vote on the project of the pardon law on Monday, May 8. At the end of April, the Chamber of Deputies adopted a bill that abolishes the notion of conflict of interest for civil servants. In reference to the amendments adopted on Wednesday, May 3 by the Senate’s Legal Committee, granting pardons to detainees sentenced for bribery and influence peddling, Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the president of the Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies, said he “categorically disapproves” of them. “I’ve said it all along, and I keep my point of view that I do not support the pardoning of corruption crimes. I understand that the final report was not closed yet. I will have talks with the PSD members in the Committee so that the final form of the report does not include these amendments,” he said, quoted by Agerpres. Prime minister Sorin Grindeanu said the government does not support the amendments but the pardon law in the form proposed by the Justice Ministry. Some 1,000 people protested against the amendments in the Victoriei Square on Wednesday evening, and protests were called for Thursday as well. A protest “on wheels” was announced for today in front of the Parliament Palace,