Romania: UPDATE Leonard Orban is appointed presidential adviser for European affairs
Mar 8, 2010

Romania: UPDATE Leonard Orban is appointed presidential adviser for European affairs.
Bucharest, March 8 /Agerpres/ - President Traian Basescu on Monday signed the decree on appointing Leonard Orban to the position of presidential adviser for European affairs within the Presidential Administration.

Leonard Orban was the first Romanian European commissioner after Romania's joining the European Union. He was Commissioner for Multilingualism from January 2007 till February 2010, when the European Council appointed the new European Commission (EU) within which Dacian Ciolos holds the position of European Commissioner for Agriculture.

On January 14 this year President Traian Basescu received Leonard Orban at the Cotroceni Palace on the latter ending his mandate on the Barroso I Commission (2004-2009). The two men had an exchange of opinions of the institutional development in the EU after the Treaty of Lisbon came into force and the developments of the economic situation in the EU.

On January 15 Leonard Orban said that Dacian Ciolos would not have an easy mission as European Commissioner for Agriculture and the main challenge of his mandate would be to continue the common agricultural policy when there are multiple, sometimes distinct, interests in the EU member states.

Leonard Orban was born on June 28, 1961 in Brasov (central Romania).

After graduating from the Mechanics Faculty of the University of Brasov (1986) and then from the Management Faculty of the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest (1992), he worked as an engineer with the Tractor Making Enterprise in Miercurea Ciuc (central Romania) (1986-89), then with the Enterprise of Industrial Special Constructions and Assembly in Bucharest (1989-90) and with the Institute of Research into the Technology of Machine Building in Bucharest (1990-93).

He started his career in the public administration in 1993 when he was employed parliamentary adviser for European and international affairs to the Chamber of Deputies, a position he held till 2001.

Over 1993-2001 he was technical secretary of the delegations of Romania's Parliament to the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (1993-95), in charge of the foreign relations of the European integration committee of the European Parliament (1995-2001), technical secretary of the delegation of the Chamber of Deputies to the meetings of the President of the European Parliament with the parliament presidents in the countries aspiring to join the EU (1995-2001), technical secretary of the European Union-Romania joint parliamentary committee (1995-2001) and of the delegation of the European integration commission of Romania's Parliament to COSAC (1995-2001), liaison officer between the Chamber of Deputies and the European Parliament (1998-2001).

Over 2001-2004 he was deputy chief negotiator of Romania with the EU and was on the team headed by Vasile Puscas.

In December 2004 Leonard Orban was appointed Secretary of State with the Ministry of European Integration, in charge of coordinating and preparing Romania's accession to the EU.

Over December 2004-April 2005 he was chief negotiator with the EU. In this capacity he coordinated Romania's position to the status of EU active observer and, on April 25, 2005, together with Romania's President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed the Luxembourg treaty on Romania's accession to the EU in his capacity as chief negotiator.

Also for the contribution made to Romania's joining NATO, he was created Knight of the Star of Romania National Order in 2002. AGERPRES
[Read the article in ]