The two however have legal problems, Silaghi being investigated by the DNA for intercession and Hellvig being involved in a lawsuit with the National Integrity Agency on account of alleged incompatibility.
PNL President Crin Antonescu announced yesterday that Ovidiu Silaghi (photo left) and Eduard Hellvig (photo right) have resigned from the Lower Chamber in order to go in the European Parliament to fill-in the seats vacated by Cristian Busoi and Ramona Manescu after the former was appointed at the helm of the National Health Insurances Council and the latter as Transportation Minister. “The departure of Mr. Cristian Busoi and Mrs. Ramona Manescu from the European Parliament has vacated two seats that normally are filled-in by colleagues from the lists – the ones that want to use this candidature, because we also had colleagues that were on the lists but didn’t want to. Mr. Silaghi is on the list, Mr. Hellvig is on the list, they are going at the European Parliament,” Antonescu stated, being quoted by Mediafax.
The PNL President pointed out that Ovidiu Silaghi’s legal situation will not be in any way influenced by his departure for the European Parliament. “The European Parliament has the same rules as the Romanian Parliament. His presence in the European Parliament will not obstruct or delay in any way the overtures that DNA or anyone else wants to make in his case,” Antonescu said. He added that the request that concerns Silaghi and that has been filed at the Romanian Parliament will go to the European Parliament.
Liberals Ovidiu Silaghi and Eduard Hellvig resigned yesterday from the Lower Chamber, the announcement in this sense being made in the plenum by Lower Chamber Speaker Valeriu Zgonea. Consequently, Parliament no longer has the right to debate the request to approve the start of the prosecution against Silaghi, because the latter is no longer an MP. “We no longer have the right to debate this. I’ll write to the Justice Minister and to the Attorney General, considering that Ovidiu Silaghi has resigned,” Zgonea pointed out yesterday.
The Lower Chamber’s leadership had decided o Monday to send to the Juridical Commission the Attorney General’s request concerning the prosecution against Ovidiu Silaghi. The former Transportation Ministry is prosecuted for intercession. In what concerns Hellvig, he is involved in a lawsuit after the National Integrity Agency (ANI) found him incompatible (apart from being a minister he was also a company director and earned a salary as researcher at a stem cell bank).
Silaghi would be the third Romanian MEP that faces legal problems, after Adrian Severin (indicted in a bribery case) and Corneliu Vadim Tudor (sued by a former aide who accused him of forging his signature). Gigi Becali, another Romanian MEP, has already been sentenced for several crimes, but he had resigned from the EP before the final ruling was made.