12:54, 07 Feb. 2025
The president of the parliamentary committee, Ludovic Orban, said the committee has not yet decided whether the tourism minister will be invited to attend the meeting.
The members in the inquiry committee, which includes representatives of the Social Democratic Party (PDL), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), agreed on Tuesday that the committee will decide who to hear as investigations progress. They also said that the representatives of the dailies Jurnalul National, Gardianul, Cotidianul and others will be heard next week.
The committee decided what documents to require from the Tourism Ministry and the minister’s presence at the meeting depends on the result of the examination of the documents.
The plenary of Romania’s Chamber of Deputies approved with 103 votes in favor, none against and no abstention, the setting up of a committee to investigate how tourism minister Elena Udrea spent public money.
The inquiry committee includes social democrats Aura Vasile, Robert Negoita, Vasile Bleotu, Dumitru Chirita and Nicolae Banicioiu, liberals Ludovic Orban, Claudiu Taga and Adriana Saftoiu and Lakatos Peter from UDMR.
The voting in the lower house followed the request of PNL and PSD for an inquiry into the Tourism Ministry’s use of public funds and advertising contracts for the promotion of Romania as a tourist destination.
The committee is in charge of checking the spending for the campaign "Romania, Land of Choice", for the program "Easter in Bucovina" and the attribution of the contract for the organization of the event "Light near the Sea”. It will also check the public funds spent for the concert performed by Goran Bregovic and Wedding Funeral Orchestra in Black Sea resort Mamaia.