Adrian Severin

Who is Adrian Severin?

Adrian Severin is a Romanian politician and Member of the European Parliament.

Adrian Severin started his politics career under the Communist rule, as Instructor at Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy, the university for Romanian Communist cadres. After the regime change, he became a member of the National Salvation Front and the Democratic Party. Severin was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania between December 12, 1996 and December 29, 1997, as part of the Victor Ciorbea cabinet. He sat in the Chamber of Deputies in June–July 1990 before resigning, and again was a member of that body from 1992 until December 2007, when he resigned.

He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Group of the Party of European Socialists, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Romania to the European Union. Previously, Severin served as the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus from 2005 to 2006. He was member of PACE from 1993 till 1997 and from 2003 till 2007.

In 2011 the European Parliament opened a formal investigation into alleged corruption by Severin and two other MEPs, based on an investigation conducted by journalists of the Sunday Times weekly. The Romanian politician insisted he had done nothing that was "illegal or against any normal behavior". Mr. Severin is accused of accepting bribe in exchange for initiating some law amendment, and is recorded on video by the journalists when requesting and accepting the bribe. Subsequently, he was called by the Leader of the SD Group in the European Parliament to resign. As he refused, he was suspended from his position as Deputy-Leader of the SD Group and had to leave this Parliamentary Group.