USR abstains from voting National Defence Strategy because it doesn't treat corruption as a priority

The Save Romania Union (USR) abstains from voting on the National Defence Strategy of the Country (SNAT) in the plenary meeting of Parliament, arguing that the document doesn't deal with corruption as a priority of the Romanian state.

"After a period in which attention was focused on other directions, for the Romanian state, the fight against corruption should become a priority again. Only because a man whose name was synonymous with stealing from the state ended up in prison, we cannot say that the looting of public budgets has stopped. Very recent examples can be identified in case of acquisitions regarding the necessary materials to combat the COVID-19 pandemic," the USR release mentions.

In this context, the USR argues that the National Defence Strategy of the Country is an essential document for identifying major threats to the state, and corruption is one of the most important ones.

"Unfortunately, in the version proposed by President Iohannis, the SNAT doesn't deal with corruption as a major threat to national security. Ever since the publication of the document, we have told the head of state that we shall not vote for the Strategy if he doesn't make some changes to reintroduce corruption as a major priority. Therefore, the USR will abstain to vote today in the joint plenary meeting. We call both on Romania's President and all the political parties to understand that we cannot create prosperity as long as the country's resources enter in the pockets of some clique connected to public budgets," the USR concluded.