The verdict of Romania’s National Ethics Council on PM Victor Ponta’s doctoral thesis was that it is not plagiarized.

The technical committee of the ethics council ruled that Ponta's PhD thesis was compliant when written and comparable with other theses of the time. “The methodology is consistent with the rules and practices of legal studies at the time. The research, as shown in the supporting papers, presents new elements and includes relevant tests,” said the National Ethics Council.

However, the technical committee also concluded that "there are some deficiencies in the bibliographic references within chapters," according to the same document.

Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu said Friday ( July 13 ) that if the Ethics Council determines that Ponta's thesis is plagiarized, it could result in the closure of the institution that awarded it.

As well as the National Ethics Council, the University of Bucharest Ethics Committee will also make a ruling on Victor Ponta's paper. Bucharest University announced yesterday that a decision will be made "as soon as possible."

The 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.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com