Former prime minister Florin Citu said on Wednesday, after leaving the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) headquarters, that he fulfilled his duties in his capacity as prime minister in compliance with the law in force and that he trusts the justice system.

Florin Citu was inside the DNA headquarters for less than half an hour, as he was called by prosecutors to be informed that he was prosecuted for abuse of office in the case concerning the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19, in which the damage would be over 1 billion euros.

"I can't make more statements. I have fulfilled my duties as prime minister in compliance with the legislation in force. Naturally, I have confidence in the justice system. I can't talk about a case in which an investigation is to follow (...) What I can tell you is that I fulfilled my duties in my capacity as prime minister in compliance with the legislation in force (...) If you look at the budget execution for 2021, you will see that the execution is better than estimated at the beginning of the year (...) The truth will come out during this investigation," Florin Citu answered journalists' questions.

Currently a senator, Florin Citu was stripped of his immunity following a Senate decision of 29 November.

The vaccines case also targets former health ministers Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihaila.

According to the DNA, on 17 June 2020, the European Commission launched the European Strategy on speeding up the development, manufacturing and distribution of vaccines against COVID-19 proposing a centralised approach for the procurement of viable vaccine options and which involved the EC negotiating advance purchase agreements with manufacturers on behalf of member states.

The vaccines were to be distributed to EU member states according to population numbers, and the decision on priority vaccination of certain categories of the population was up to the member states, the DNA mentions.

Investigators maintain that member states had the possibility to use, within 5 days of notification, an "opt-out" clause, so they were not bound to pay any contribution for vaccines they decided not to request.

"In the present case, in the above-mentioned context, aspects related to the way in which, between January and May 2021, members of the Romanian Government, in violation of the legal provisions and without any documents/analyses proving the necessity of the purchase, contracted a much higher number of vaccine doses (Pfizer and Moderna), when the number of people eligible for vaccination communicated by the Romanian State to the European Commission was 10.7 million," explain the prosecutors.

According to the DNA, although the vaccine doses contracted prior to 1 January 2021 (37,588,366 doses) would have been sufficient to vaccinate more than 23 million people, two of the three persons against whom the requests for criminal prosecution are issued, benefiting from the help of the third, would have negotiated and ordered the purchase of an extra 52,805,690 doses of vaccine, worth a total of 1,005,498,687 euros, plus VAT, which constitutes a loss to the state budget. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - editor: Adina Panaitescu)