Rompetrol case blocks talks over new CNVM chairman

The appointment of a new chairman to the National Securities Commission (CNVM) is stirring unrest in the commission and the National Liberal Party (PNL), as the PNL favourite for the position, deputy-chairman Paul Miclaus (photo), has been indicted for involvement in the Rompetrol case last week. Several CNVM representatives, including chairperson Gabriela Anghelache, deputy-chairman Paul Miclaus and commissioner Victor Eros, were indicted in the case regarding the manner in which Rompetrol shares were traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, three weeks before Anghelache’s term at the helm of CNVM expired. Her term was initially supposed to expire at the end of June, but Parliament extended it for another three months, because the parties had been unable to reach an agreement on whom should take the reigns of CNVM. Miclaus, the deputy-chairman of the commission, stood every chance of taking the reigns of CNVM, being backed by the PNL, the party that is now set to nominate the commission chairman, according to political agreements. With the latest developments in the Rompetrol case, the Liberals decided to put the talks on the new CNVM chairman on hold. “We have discussed this within the party last week and decided to postpone talks because of the situation at the Prosecutor’s Office. We will make no decision until we have talked with the PNL leader Calin Popescu-Tariceanu,” PNL’s spokesman, Varujan Vosganian, head of the Senate budget-finance committee, said yesterday.