EP’s JURI Committee asks Rovana Plumb to clear up inaccuracies in her wealth statement

Rovana Plumb, proposed by Dancila Government as EU Commissioner for Transports, is to be heard by the JURI Committee of the European Parliament on October 2. However, before the hearing the committee wants Plumb to clarify the disparities in her wealth statements.

More precisely, it seems that there are suspicions in Brussels on the wealth statement Plumb had submitted to the European Parliament, due to a RON 800,000 loan and shares in a company that the former Romanian minister would have not declared.

The JURI Committee sent a letter to Rovana Plumb in this respect, asking her to provide more clarification on the inaccuracies in her wealth statements filed in Romania and in Brussels.

The committee has also asked her to translate the wealth statement filed in Romania and give more details about a loan.

In the wealth statements submitted in Romania there are three loans on Rovana Plumb’s name, a huge one, EUR 800,000, taken from the bank, and other two loans from individuals.

Plumb’s wealth statement this year mentions an EUR 800,000 loan taken from a bank, due in 2030. Local mass media reported that this loan would need a monthly mortgage of around EUR 3,500.

Another loan in Rovana Plumb’s wealth statement is taken from a person, Elena Loghin, and mounts to RON 800,000. The same document shows that the Social Democrat top member donated RON 800,000 to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the sum required to the candidates for EP elections as a campaign contribution. It is the exact amount that Plumb had taken from Elena Loghin.

Asked by Digi24 to explain the situation, Rovana Plumb denied to say who is Elena Loghin.

On the same pattern, Rovana Plumb’s wealth statement in 2017 mentions a RON 63,000 loan (money that she also donated to PSD) taken from a businessman from Târgoviște, Ion Neculaescu. He is the owner of a hotel in the above-mentioned city in Dambovita county. Plumb is leader of PSD branch in Dambovita and local media reported the two are close acquaintances.

As for the inaccuracies in the wealth statement filed in Romania and the one submitted to the European Parliament, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that Rovana Plumb would have filed a 6-page document in Brussels detailing on her incomes, revenues, expenses, money coming from bank accounts and properties, but information about the loans declared in the statement filed in Bucharest is missing.

If the EUR 800,000 loan due in 2030 is declared in the documents in Romania, this loan is missing from the statement filed to the EP, which mentions only four plots of land, two apartments in Bucharest and three houses in other cities in Romania.

“These inconsistencies must be clarified before the appointment procedure. “We need an independent authority to probe and prevent that European top jobs are taken by shady politicians”, said MEP Daniel Freund, Green Party.