Sterling Affair: Ex-PM says he will go to court over officials' lies about him

Former prime minister and current National Liberal Party (PNL) president Calin Popescu Tariceanu said in a press conference on Wednesday that he would go to court in response to „slandering charges” made about him by current PM Emil Boc and by former state secretary Iulian Iancu in the so-called Sterling Affair. He also used the press conference to explain the steps of a contract by which the Sterling Resources firm obtained a key role in the administration of some reserves on the Black Sea continental plateau.

Iulian Iancu, who currently serves as head of the industries commission in the House of Deputies, demanded the National Agency for Mineral Resources and the Finance Ministry on Wednesday to provide the reasons for which a governmental decision was issued, ceding the right to decide on energy operations in the Pelican-Midia area of the Black Sea continental plateau to Sterling Resources.

For his part, current prime minister Emil Boc on Monday accused the government run by Tariceanu until late last year that it had prepared as early as 2007 an emergency ordinance that allowed the change of an exploitation contract with Sterling into a concession contract.

Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s statements in brief:

• The whole story is a lie. The current government uses diversionary tactics against its rivals
• I decided to go to court as I am no longer willing to accept the slendering statements and lies of people such as Iulian Iancu and Emil Boc
• Iulian iancu and Emil Boc made slandering statements that have affected my image
• I am coming out late with such explanations because I no longer have access to all the decisions made by the current government
• The consortium with Sterling was approved in 1992. The contract was first signed by the Stolojan Government (in the early nineties)
• In 1995, once Rompetrol was privatized, the contract was taken over by the National Agency for Mineral Resources
• The essential change in the contract appeared in 2002 when the oil law was changed. Iulian Iancu, a state secretary at the Industry Ministry, was dealing with it
• The PSD Government (2000-2004) changed the terms of the exploitation contract with Sterling