Romania's Senate speaker Nicolae Vacaroiu declared on Monday that he was surprised that the European Commission's recent country report on Romania had the nerve to criticize Romania's Parliament. The Parliament does not have the ability to approve investigations but only to solicit them, he explained.

The report, presented in Brussels on July 23, underlined the Romanian Parliament's lack of political will regarding high corruption cases. The Senate will have an extraordinary session on August 25-28 in order to decide on the files of former ministers Codrut Seres and Paul Pacuraru. Vacaroiu declared the vote will be a secret one.