AUDIO INTERVIEW Hannes Swoboda, deputy head of EP Socialist Group: MEP Adrian Severin has all reasons to resign and leave European Parliament

Hannes Swoboda, the deputy head of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, said in an interview with HotNews.ro on Tuesday that Romanian MEP Adrian Severin had all the reasons to resign following the recent Sunday Times-sparked scandal in which he and other members of the European body became suspect of corruption. Swoboda said that „our principle is zero tolerance in relation to corruption and bribes”, but that he did not think Severin could be forced in any way to resign from the European Parliament.

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Hannes Swoboda for HotNews.ro – key points:

• Our principle is zero tolerance in relation to corruption and bribes. We’re asking him to leave the group
• We cannot tolerate to have Mr. Severin as a member.
• We still hope and expect him to resign because he’s doing damage to himself, the party, and the European Parliament.
• Everybody should make it clear there is no tolerance for corruption and bribe.
• What we expect is that Mr Severin had the courage and the character to resign and not make it difficult either for the party or for us or the parliament, and again I hope everybody sees and follows the decision of the Socialists in the EP.
• I dont think he can be forced [to leave] by i think the vast majority of the MEPs will make it very clear to Mr. Severin that his presence is not welcome.
• The scandal has a very bad impact on the European Parliament