Teodor Viorel Meleșcanu (; born 10 March 1941) is a Romanian politician, diplomat, and jurist. He served as Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Romania (SIE) between 2012 and 2014. He was a three times

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

on behalf of the National Liberal Party (PNL),

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in so ...

between 2007 and 2008, and

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between coun ...

between 1992 and 1996, in November 2014 and since January 2017 to July 2019. On 27 February 2012, upon his appointment as head of the SIE, he suspended himself from PNL and was later expelled from the party. On 10 September 2019, he was elected President of the Senate. He resigned from office on 3 February 2020.

Life and career

Born in Brad,

Hunedoara County Hunedoara County () is a county (''județ'') of Romania, in Transylvania, with its capital city at Deva. The county is part of the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euroregion. Name In Hungarian, it is known as , in German as , and in Slovak ...

, he was baptized in the town's

Romanian Orthodox 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 patriarchate ...

church. Around the age of five, he left for

Buteni Buteni ( hu, Buttyin) is a commune in Arad County, Romania. The river Crișul Alb flows nearby. Buteni commune lies in the Sebiș Basin Sebiș ( hu, Borossebes) is a town in Arad County, western Transylvania, Romania. Situated 82 km from t ...

, his grandparents' village, located near the Crișul Alb River. Meleșcanu then studied at

Moise Nicoară National College Moise Nicoară National College ( ro, Colegiul Național "Moise Nicoară") is a public day high school in Arad, Romania. History Opened in 1873, the school building was erected over the previous four years, during the Austro-Hungarian period. In ...

in Arad. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princ ...

in 1964 and the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...

in 1968. In 1973, he obtained a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

in political science and international law from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies. Between 1966 and 1990 he held various diplomatic functions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In August 1990 he was named undersecretary of state in this ministry. Between November 1992 and November 1996 he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nicolae Văcăroiu's

Party of Social Democracy A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature fo ...

(PDSR)

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

. In 1996 he campaigned as an independent for election to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

from the Prahova County electoral district. He was elected to that body, becoming president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Romania in the 1996–2000 legislature. In 1997, Meleșcanu founded the Alliance for Romania (''Alianța pentru România'') party, together with several former members of the PDSR (

Mircea Coșea Dumitru Gheorghe Mircea Coșea (born June 9, 1942) is a Romanian politician, economist, diplomat, essayist, journalist and professor. A former member of the Party of Social Democracy (PDSR) until June 1997, he joined Teodor Meleșcanu and Iosif Bo ...

Iosif Boda Iosif may refer to: People * Iosif Amusin, Soviet historian * Iosif Anisim, Romanian sprint canoer *Iosif Blaga, Romanian literary theorist and politician *Iosif Bobulescu, Romanian bishop *Iosif Capotă, Romanian anti-communist resistance fighte ...

, and others). He was elected president of this party in December 1997 and re-elected in March 2001. In January 2002, in the wake of the Alliance for Romania's merger with the PNL, Meleșcanu became first vice-president of the latter party. Since 2004, he has been a Liberal senator for Prahova, also being a vice-president in the Permanent Bureau of the Senate. He is a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bucharest, and has written a substantial number of works and scientific publications dealing with international law and diplomacy. On February 27, President

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a conservative Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian Minister of Transport on multiple occasions between 1991 a ...

appointed him for the SIE position vacant after the former director Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu's ascension to the post of Prime Minister. In 2013 he was awarded Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In November 2014, following the resignation of Titus Corlățean as a result of problems with voting in the

Romanian diaspora The Romanian diaspora is the ethnically Romanian population outside Romania and Moldova. The concept does not usually include the ethnic Romanians who live as natives in nearby states, chiefly those Romanians who live in Ukraine, Hungary, ...

during the first round of that year's presidential election, Meleșcanu was appointed foreign minister. He resigned eight days later, after similar problems took place during the second round. After his resignation, he joined the advisory board of the

Fourth Ponta Cabinet The Fourth Ponta Cabinet was the government of Romania from 17 December 2014 to 17 November 2015. The Cabinet was supported by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) and the Alliance of Liberals ...

regarding security and defense affairs. After Ponta was replaced by Dacian Cioloș, he was dismissed and joined ALDE. In January 2018 he became again Foreign Minister of Romania, this time in

Dăncilă Cabinet The Dăncilă Cabinet was the 128th Government of Romania. It was led by Viorica Dăncilă, who assumed office as Prime Minister of Romania along with her cabinet on 29 January 2018. Led by Viorica Dăncilă, this cabinet was constituted and sup ...

. After thousands of Romanians living abroad have experienced difficulties in expressing their vote in the 2019 European Parliament election, Meleșcanu has been accused of premeditated abuse and obstruction of their right to vote. On 6 June 2019, The National Anticorruption Directorate (Romanian:

Direcţia Naţională Anticorupţie The National Anticorruption Directorate ( ro, Direcția Națională Anticorupție (DNA)), formerly National Anticorruption Prosecution Office ( ro, Parchetul Național Anticorupție), is the Romanian agency tasked with preventing, investigating ...

(DNA)) announced that it has launched a criminal investigation in the matter. Meleșcanu is a Member of the Advisory Board of th
Global Panel Foundation
based in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, Sydney and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, which works behind-the-scenes in conflict areas around the world.

Scientific activity

Apart from his diplomatic and political activity, Teodor Melescanu also did a didactic activity. He teaches as a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the

, the Department of International Relations, being a holder of the courses "Public International Law", "European Security" and "The Principles and Practice of Diplomacy". He also teaches the "International Negotiation Theory and Practice" course at the Masters of the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bucharest and the course "Public International Law" at the Masters Courses of the Faculty of History of the University of Bucharest. Meleşcanu published a wide range of scientific papers and publications related to international law and diplomacy. He is the vice-president of the Association of International Law and International Relations (ADIRI) in Bucharest, a member of the Institute for Political Studies in Bucharest and of the Romanian Institute of International Studies (IRSI).

Personal life

Meleșcanu was married to Felicia Meleșcanu, a jurist and Romanian Television (TVR) journalist, until her death in January 2004.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Notes

External links

* *
Teodor Meleșcanu's CV at the PNL site
*
Teodor Meleșcanu
on the site of the

Chamber of Deputies of Romania ); – Committee for Industries and Services ( ro, Comisia pentru industrii și servicii); – Committee for Transport and Infrastructure ( ro, Comisia pentru transporturi și infrastructură); – Committee for Agriculture, Forestry, Food Indu ...

, - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Melescanu, Teodor 1941 births Candidates for President of Romania Commanders with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni Living people Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church Presidents of the Senate of Romania National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians People from Brad, Hunedoara Romanian jurists Romanian Ministers of Defence Romanian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians University of Bucharest alumni University of Bucharest faculty University of Geneva alumni