The thesis was plagiarized. This was the verdict of the University of Bucharest's Ethics Committee on Romanian PM Victor Ponta's doctoral thesis, which has been at the center of an ongoing political scandal since accusations of plagiarism arose. The Committee deemed one third of the text copied, according to reports in the local media, and indicated that whole blocks of text had been copied directly from another source without appropriate references.

PM Ponta has responded with the accusation that the University of Bucharest's decision is political. He described the Ethics Committee as “ad-hoc” and set up especially for him. The Prime Minister also said that he was not consulted by the Committee nor given a chance to defend himself and his thesis.

The decision follows a ruling by the National Ethics Council earlier this week that the thesis was not plagiarized. PM Victor Ponta was accused of plagiarism on July 2, 2012 by members of the National Titles, Diplomas and University Certificates Certification Council, who decided that the doctoral thesis was plagiarized. This followed an announcement by international scientific publication Nature that an anonymous source had claimed that more than half of Ponta’s doctoral contained copied text.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

photo source: Romanian Government