Planned Assistance for Romanian Stock Exchange raises questions about politicians

Vineri, 26 septembrie 2008, 16:06 English | Top News

Several Romanian MPs will be morally but not legally faced with a conflict of interest should the Finance Ministry present a draft bill to change the Fiscal Code, so that earnings from stock exchange trade be tax exempt in 2009. The bill will have to go through the Parliament, where several politicians are also known to be players or potential players on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as they hold shares on listed companies.

That would mean most politicians would be fully interested to support the measure expected to be put forward by Finance minister Varujan Vosganian. The minister for the relations with the Parliament, Mihai Voicu, himself a bourse player, says MPs faced with voting an advantage for themselves should refrain from voting, but no law would force them to.

No other EU member states allows PMs to trade on the Stock Exchange. But in Romania there have been two major scandals involving trader-politicians, known as the Patriciu and Verestoy cases.

Among the current MPs known for their former or ongoing trading activities one can count Hungarian Democrat (UDMR) senator Verestoy Attila, Democratic Liberal (PD-L) senator Vasile Blaga, PD-L senator Ionut Popescu, PD-L top official Theodor Stolojan and deputy Cozmin Gusa.