Two Romanian Liberal-Democratic (PD-L) MEPs have initiated a written statement in the European Parliament urging the European Commission to intervene and demand the Romanian Government to fully restitute the money it collected through a controversial first car registration tax over the past year. The move comes as the House of Deputies in Bucharest approved on Tuesday a motion submitted by the same PD-L for the annulment of the tax.

The statement submitted by MEPs Sebastian Bodu and Marian Zlotea must receive by May this year 400 signatures before becoming an official position of the European Parliament and being sent to the European Commission.

The two MEPs want the government in Bucharest to be forced to fully restitute the money it collected from those who paid the tax over the past year, as the government was in tense talks with Brussels over what the Commission called a discriminative tax.

Meanwhile, in Bucharest, deputies from opposition Democratic Liberals (PD-L), Social Democrats (PSD) and the Greater Romania Party (PRM) voted in favor of a simple motion for the annulment of the tax and the restitution of funds to those who have already paid it when buying cars last year, which had been submitted by the PD-L.

But the bill may have no effect as a simple motion cannot force the Government or its members to make concrete steps and answer what MPs consider necessary, as the Constitutional Court decided a year ago.

The vote was to take place on Monday evening but was postponed because of a joint session of the Romanian Parliament over the Kosovo declaration of independence.