Romanian MEP resigns from his party over corruption claims

(BUCHAREST) - Romanian European deputy Adrian Severin on Monday said he was resigning from his party following corruption claims against him while denying committing any illegal act.

"Please, do accept my official resignation", he told members of his Social-Democratic Party (PSD) in Bucharest.

However, Severin refused to give up his seat in the European Parliament as did two of his colleagues, Slovenian Zoran Thaler and Austrian Ernst Strasser, also implicated in the scandal.

London's Sunday Times reported that the three had accepted offers of up to 100,000 euros ($140,000) per year in exchange for proposing amendments in the EU legislature.

A fourth, Spain's Pablo Zalba Bidegain, was named at the weekend.

Romanian anti-graft prosecutors last week opened an investigation into corruption allegations against Severin, who denies committing any illegal act.

His refusal to resign from the European Parliament has stirred fierce criticism in Romania.

Several prominent organisations involved in the fight against corruption on the platform "For a Clean Romania" launched a "competition for the best monument projects dedicated to Adrian Severin's heroic resistance to calls for his resignation".

The online competition (http://www.romaniacurata.ro) is a playful way to put pressure on Severin to emulate his colleagues from Austria and Slovenia and resign from the European Parliament, they say.

The first submissions include Severin being pictured as a beggar in front of the European Parliament or as a cow dressed like an inmate.