PNL leaders had private meetings also based on the previously held public office , with representatives of the Austrian company Schweighofer Holzindustrie on the draft Forest Code, misinforming President Klaus Iohannis later PSD leader, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said, quoted by Mediafax .
He said he had accurate information regarding these meetings, but would not disclose the names of those Liberals, saying only that he is confident that state institutions are monitoring the situation and will brief the Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) in the meeting scheduled for June, held to review the Forest Code.
Ponta has not disclosed the names of those Liberals not even when asked if it was Liberal MP Lucia Varga, state secretary in the Ministry of Environment in 2005-2008 and deputy minister for Water, Forests and Fisheries in the Ponta Government in December 2012 until the PNL left from the government.
Asked on a television station it is a case of power misuse, Ponta responded initially "100%" and then stated that he is the one who can make legal appointments, insisting however on the idea that liberal leaders have had private meetings with the representatives of Holzindustrie Schweighofer.
Referring to the letter received from this company whereby they requested the removal of the threshold of 30% from the Forest Code and raised the possibility of suing in court the Romanian state, the prime minister added he received threats from companies during his Prime Minister mandate, but they did not impress him.
"It is abnormal. It is a pressure means, but it is not the first nor the last company resorting to it ", Ponta said.
Moreover, he argued that the representatives of the Austrian company asked him for a meeting and that he denied.
Wednesday evening , the Presidency posted on its website the opinion received in March from the Competition Council about the Forest Code draft in which the institution states that the limitation of the acquisition /processing of timber to 30% is a barrier on the timber trading market and proposed the cancelation thereof.