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The Social Democratic Party (PSD) considers that apart from its ongoing investigation into the EU's vaccine procurement, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) should also look into the purchase of vaccines in Romania under the management of Save Romania Union (USR) ministers.
"PSD considers that EPPO's announcement confirming that an investigation is underway into the EU's purchase of COVID-19 vaccines was expectable. However, PSD maintains that, in addition to investigating the circumstances of the negotiation and conclusion of the framework contract at the level of the European Commission, a consistent part of the investigation should focus on the reasons behind the decision of the USR ministers to purchase a huge amount of vaccines in 2021. The decisions are all the more so incomprehensible as at that moment Romania already had firm orders placed for a number of doses that covered the full, two-shot vaccination of Romania's entire eligible population," the Social Democrats said in a release on Friday, Agerpres informs.
"Not even now have the USR representatives in the government headed by former PM Florin Citu - Dan Barna, Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihaila, been able to provide pertinent explanations to justify this purchase made under completely disadvantageous conditions for our country. Back then, there was already information about the Romanian population's higher reluctance to the COVID vaccine compared to the rest of Europe, and there was no talk yet about booster jabs, nor about the vaccination of children and teenagers under 18, which makes the oversized purchase of COVID vaccines even more suspect. Furthermore, at that time Romania still had the possibility to refuse entering a new contract," the statement reads.
