Ilie Sârbu (born 26 May 1950) is a
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n theologian, economist and politician. A member of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(PSD), he sat in the
Romanian Senate
) is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 136 seats (before the 2016 Romanian legislative election the total number of elected representatives was 176), to which members are elected by direct popular vote using party-list ...
from 2004 to 2015, representing
Timiș County
Timiș () is a county ('' județ'') of western Romania on the border with Hungary and Serbia, in the historical region of Banat, with the county seat at Timișoara. It is the westernmost and the largest county in Romania in terms of land area. T ...
. In the
Adrian Năstase
Adrian Năstase (; born 22 June 1950) is a Romanian jurist, academic/professor, blogger, and former politician who served as the Prime Minister of Romania from October 2000 to December 2004.
He competed in the 2004 presidential election as th ...
cabinet, he was
Agriculture Minister
An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...
from 2000 until July 2004, and he held the same position in the
Emil Boc
Emil Boc (; born 6 September 1966) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 22 December 2008 until 6 February 2012 and is the current Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city of Transylvania, where he was first elected in Ju ...
cabinet between 2008 and 2009. He was
Senate President
President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies.
The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for ex ...
for six weeks in 2008.
He and his wife Mariana have a daughter,
Daciana Sârbu
Daciana Octavia Sârbu (born 15 January 1977) is a Romanian politician, legal counsellor, and Member of the European Parliament.
Political career
Affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (PSD), part of the Party of European Socialists, she bec ...
. She, in turn, is married to
Victor Ponta
Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian jurist and politician, who served as Prime Minister of Romania between his appointment by President Traian Băsescu in May 2012 and his resignation in November 2015. A former member of ...
, who served alongside Ilie Sârbu in the Boc cabinet.
Biography
He was born in
Ciuta,
Caraș-Severin County
Caraș-Severin () is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița ...
and holds two degrees, one obtained in 1975 from the
Sibiu Theological Institute and one in 1998 from the
University of Craiova
The University of Craiova ( ro, Universitatea din Craiova) is a public university located in Craiova, Romania. It was founded in 1947, initially with four institutes, in the Palace of Justice of Craiova. It is the largest university in the histori ...
Economics Faculty, with a Management specialty.
["Guvern de regățeni, cu 'moț' ardelean" ("Old Kingdom Government, with a Few Transylvanians")]
, ''Adevărul'', 19 December 2008; retrieved May 18, 2009 He also studied Theology in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
(1984–1985),
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
(1989) and Finance in Germany (1994). Sârbu became a professor at the
Caransebeș
Caransebeș (; german: Karansebesch; hu, Karánsebes, Hungarian pronunciation: ) is a municipiu, city in Caraș-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. It is located at the confluence of the Timiș (river), River Timiș ...
Theological Seminary in 1976 and its director in 1978,
[ Florina Zăinescu]
Profile
, ''Jurnalul Național'', 18 December 2008; retrieved May 18, 2009 remaining until 1981. From 1981 to 1991, he was an economic adviser at the
Metropolis of Banat The Metropolis of Banat ( ro, Mitropolia Banatului) is a metropolis of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Its see is the Archdiocese of Timișoara; its suffragan dioceses are the Archdiocese of Arad and the Diocese of Caransebeș. The headquarters is t ...
of the
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; ro, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, ), or Patriarchate of Romania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches, and one of ...
.
[Profile]
, impactnews; retrieved May 18, 2009 During 2006, two accusations were made that Sârbu collaborated with the
Securitate
The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...
during the 1980s. The first came from a former Timiș County agent, who charged that Sârbu had been recruited for a mission to the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
; the latter denied this and presented a
CNSAS certificate confirming that his name does not figure in existing files as having been an informant or agent. Then, after a second CNSAS certificate again exonerated him, it emerged that Sârbu's name appeared on a list belonging to the former spy Liviu Turcu, and that he had been a domestic agent; Sârbu vehemently denied the new claim (labelling Turcu a "traitor") and said he had in fact been under Securitate surveillance.
Following the
1989 Revolution, Sârbu entered business, working as the director of Fangmeier, a
Timișoara
), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor)
, image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg
, map_caption = Location in Timiș County
, pushpin_map = Romania#Europe
, pushpin_ ...
-based grain distributor, from 1991 until 2000.
In 1992, he helped secure the first
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
contract for Romania.
He also joined the PDSR (predecessor of the PSD) in 1993.
From that year until 2001, he was vice president of the Timiș County party chapter, and also sat on the party's national council. From 2001 to 2004 he was a member of the PSD's central coordinating bureau. Since 2004 he has headed the PSD's Timiș County chapter, and since 2005 he has been a vice president of the national party. During 2000, he was president of the Timiș County Council, and was appointed Agriculture Minister at the end of that year.
[Profile at the Romanian Government site]
; retrieved May 18, 2009 In this capacity, he led and finalised negotiations with the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
on the Agriculture chapter of the
acquis
The Community acquis or ''acquis communautaire'' (; ), sometimes called the EU acquis and often shortened to acquis, is the accumulated legislation, legal acts and court decisions that constitute the body of European Union law that came into b ...
. Several scandals affected his term: in 2001, he was accused of criminal involvement in the
privatisation
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of a
Prahova County
Prahova County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploiești.
Demographics
In 2011, it had a population of 762,886 and the population density was 161/km². It is Romania's third mos ...
company, but later cleared; in 2003, a number of national newspapers alleged that he obtained a spacious central Bucharest villa at far below market value through a shady deal; also, he lost a
testicle
A testicle or testis (plural testes) is the male reproductive gland or gonad in all bilaterians, including humans. It is homologous to the female ovary. The functions of the testes are to produce both sperm and androgens, primarily testostero ...
in a hunting accident that December.
He was dismissed in July 2004 by
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Adrian Năstase
Adrian Năstase (; born 22 June 1950) is a Romanian jurist, academic/professor, blogger, and former politician who served as the Prime Minister of Romania from October 2000 to December 2004.
He competed in the 2004 presidential election as th ...
so he could focus on party work, and stated the move came as "a surprise" to him.
Later in 2004, Sârbu was
elected Elected may refer to:
* "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973
* ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008
*The Elected, an American indie rock band
See also
*Election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...
senator, serving as the body's secretary and, from October to December 2008, as its president,
being elected to that position following the resignation of
Nicolae Văcăroiu
Nicolae Văcăroiu (; born on 5 December 1943 in Cetatea Albă, now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Ukraine) is a Romanian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), who served as Prime Minister between 1992 and 1996. Before the 198 ...
. In 2008, he was
re-elected senator and named Agriculture Minister once again.
In this capacity, he pledged to find new markets for Romanian agricultural products and to obtain additional funds through the
European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds which was set up for the financing of Rural Development Programme (RDP) actions by European Union Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/ ...
. Regarding the latter priority, at the April 2009
Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
meeting, he secured a commitment to raise subsidies by
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
35 per hectare, benefiting around 1.25 million farmers. Previously, he had fired 60 managers at the agency responsible for distributing the EU funds because of repeated delays in starting payments. Together with his PSD colleagues, Sârbu resigned from the cabinet on 1 October 2009 in protest at the dismissal of vice prime minister and Interior Minister
Dan Nica
Dan Nica (born July 2, 1960) is a Romanian engineer and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), he has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2014. He held a seat in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Galați County f ...
. The following August, he was elected PSD leader in the Senate. In August 2015, he announced his withdrawal from politics, ahead of a planned confirmation to the
Court of Accounts A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a Supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. Statutory audit or External audit) on the executive branch of power.
See also
*Most of those ...
; this took place the following month.
[ Mircea Marian]
"Ilie Sârbu, ales de Parlament consilier la Curtea de Conturi" ("Ilie Sârbu, Chosen by Parliament as Court of Accounts Member")
''Evenimentul Zilei'', 16 March 2015; retrieved September 26, 2015
Notes
External links
Official sitePersonal blogParliamentary profile
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarbu, Ilie
Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians
Romanian Ministers of Agriculture
Members of the Senate of Romania
Presidents of the Senate of Romania
Romanian economists
Romanian theologians
Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church
People from Caraș-Severin County
University of Craiova alumni
1950 births
Living people