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 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 are ...

. In the Adrian Năstase 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 ...

for six weeks in 2008. He and his wife Mariana have a daughter, Daciana Sârbu. 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 Re� ...

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 second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

(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 ...

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 We ...

(1989) and Finance in Germany (1994). Sârbu became a professor at the

Caransebeș Caransebeș (; german: Karansebesch; hu, Karánsebes, Hungarian pronunciation: ) is a city in Caraș-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. It is located at the confluence of the River Timiș with the River Sebeș, th ...

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 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 churches, and one of the nine patriarchates ...

.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 fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

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 union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

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 testoste ...

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 ...

Adrian Năstase so he could focus on party work, and stated the move came as "a surprise" to him. Later in 2004, Sârbu was elected 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. 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 ...

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 o ...

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 ins ...

; 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 site

Personal blog

Parliamentary 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