Viorel Ștefan (born 26 July 1954) is a Romanian politician and economist who has been serving as a Member of the

European Court of Auditors The European Court of Auditors (ECA; French: ''Cour des comptes européenne'') is the supreme audit institution of the European Union (EU). It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and is one of the Institutions of the European ...

for

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

since 2019. He previously served as

Deputy Prime Minister of Romania The Deputy Prime Minister of Romania (), officially the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Romania (), is a minister in the Government of Romania. It is considered a Minister without portfolio, non-portfolio role. List of deputy prime m ...

from 2018 to 2019 and as Minister of Public Finance from January to June 2017.

Education and career

Ștefan graduated in economics from the

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in , Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former was converted to a university, the University of , as it was named ...

in 1980. He later worked as an accountant at the state company for river navigation, the NAVROM in Galați. After the 1989 revolution, he was appointed the general manager of NAVROM SA and became its president in 1996. He stopped working in 2002, while he was a senator. He was also a shareholder of Transport Trade Services.

Political career

Parliamentary

A member of the PSDR since 1993, he was elected to the Senate in 1996 and was reelected in 2000 and 2004. He was Chairman of the Budget and Finance commission during his tenure as a Senator. After serving three terms in the Senate, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2008. He was reelected to the constituency of Galați in both 2012 and 2016. In March 2015, he was linked to become the next Finance Minister in order to replace

Darius Vâlcov Darius Vâlcov (born 25 March 1977) was a Romanian politician who served as Minister of Finance, Mayor of Slatina and Senator. Education Vâlcov has obtained in 2008 a PhD degree from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, but was accused to ...

but Prime Minister

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian politician and jurist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from 2012 to 2015. He was president of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD) from 2010 to ...

chose

Eugen Teodorovici Eugen Orlando Teodorovici (born 12 August 1971) is a Romanian politician of the Social Democratic Party. He served as minister of finance in 2015 and from 2018 to 2019. From 2012 to 2015, he served as minister of EU funds. He was a member of the ...

instead. Ștefan was elected as one of the 14 Vice Presidents of the PSD in October 2015 following the election of

Liviu Dragnea Liviu Nicolae Dragnea (; born 28 October 1962) is a Romanian engineer and former politician. Starting his career in the Democratic Party (PD), he joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD), eventually becoming its leader. After holding several pos ...

as the party President.

Minister of Finance

Ștefan was appointed the Minister of Finance in the Grindeanu government in January 2017. He was not reappointed to the Tudose government in June of the same year.

Deputy Prime Minister

He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Romania on 29 January 2018 and held the position until 3 July 2019 under Prime Minister

Viorica Dăncilă Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă (; born 16 December 1963) is a Romanian politician, former leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and was Prime Minister of Romania from 29 January 2018 to 4 November 2019. She is the first woman in Romanian his ...

European Court of Auditors

In 2019, he was proposed to become a member of the European Court of Auditors. He took office on 1 July, and will serve until 30 June 2025.

Personal life

Ștefan is married with 3 children. He was bestowed the National Order for Merit in the rank of Knight.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stefan, Viorel 1954 births Living people People from Botoșani County Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni Deputy prime ministers of Romania Members of the Senate of Romania Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) 21st-century Romanian politicians Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians European Court of Auditors