Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced on Tuesday that he would give up his PhD title from the University of Bucharest and sent a letter to this effect to the Chancellor of the University of Bucharest.
In the said document, the Head of Government is informing the chancellor of wanting to waive the title of Doctor of Laws awarded in 2003 by the University of Bucharest.
The information was published on Tuesday on the Prime Minister Facebook page.
Moreover, Ponta argues that he should have done this a while ago. The PSD leader states that after he leaves politics, he will start a new doctoral thesis, "in compliance with all standards and requirements of the time."
The PhD thesis of Prime Minister Victor Ponta was the subject of plagiarism allegations.
Here is the letter sent by Victor Ponta:
Honorable Chancellor ,
I am writing to inform you that I am giving up the title of Doctor in law granted in 2003 by Bucharest University.
It is a gesture that I should have done a while ago, from the moment the public allegations about my PhD thesis have been made. I have not done it because I have considered myself fair in the arguments presented at the moment the contestation appeared and I did not want to mix the purely professional plan with the political one.
After I have left the political life, I do want to initiate a new doctoral thesis observing all the standards and requirements in force at the moment.
The field of Education is a fundamental and essential one not only for the government activity but also for our future as a European society. As of today we have a new Minister of Education and Research and I wish his mandate to be successful in achieving its objectives without being disturbed by a topic that has become eminently political over time.
Strictly personal, the time I spent as a student of the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest is an exceptional memory and I do regret a lot that the discussions appeared after I took office as Prime Minister affected the image of an institution that I love as much as everyone of its graduates!
For all these arguments, do take note, dear Chancellor of my decision to waive the title of doctor in law.
Sincerely,
Victor Ponta
Radu Tudor: Some will consider that Ponta acknowledged that there was something wrong with his PhD thesis.
"Some will consider it an act of courage, dignity, that he gives up a professional title and there are not many who made today's gesture, and others will believe that the Prime Minister admits that there is something wrong with his doctor title, with the work that he has, " Radu Tudor said Tuesday on Antena 3, commenting the Prime Minister’s decision
The PhD thesis by PM Victor Ponta has been the subject of plagiarism accusations .
In June 2012, the Nature magazine published reports that Prime Minister Victor Ponta plagiarized his doctoral thesis, the publication showing that it had accessed the documents submitted by an anonymous person indicating that more than half of Ponta's thesis International Criminal Court is copied.
The chancellor of the Bucharest University, Mircea Dumitru, said then that only the Ministry of Education may decide to withdraw the title of doctor from Victor Ponta, because he was a state official, adding, however, that the report of the Ethics committee had confirmed the plagiarism.
Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu (PSD) said, however, that she read the report on plagiarism by the University of Bucharest on Victor Ponta’s work and that she needed "legal leverage" in this case. Subsequently, Andronescu argued that she did not have the competency to withdraw the PhD in law title of premier Victor Ponta, because he was a state official.
Also in 2012, the National Ethics Council reported that a PhD in Law title of Victor Ponta was obtained in accordance with the legislation in force in 2003 and that the plagiarism allegation was not sustainable in his case.
In March this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Victor Ponta will not be investigated for plagiarism, after the appeal filed by Adrian Papahagi, Mihail Neamţu and Augustin Ofiţeru, who requested invalidation of the solution to prosecute and the reopening the file was rejected, the decision is final.
Whistleblowers have argued that, out of the 292 pages of the book "Liability in International Humanitarian Law", published by Universe Law in 2010, the work authored by Victor Ponta and Daniela Coman, "a total of 113 are not an own original creative work, but a misappropriation of the intellectual product by four other authors ".