Agriculture Minister
What was the position of Dacian Cioloș in May 2008?
Dacian Cioloș Dacian Julien Cioloș ( ; born 27 July 1969 ) is a Romanian agronomist who was Prime Minister of Romania between November 2015 and January 2017 . In the Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu cabinet , he was Agriculture Minister from October 2007 to December 2008 . In November 2009 , European Commission President José Manuel Barroso nominated him to be the next Agriculture Commissioner , a post he assumed in February 2010 and held until his term expired in November 2014 . In November 2015 , President Klaus Iohannis named him Prime Minister , and Cioloș assumed office after receiving approval from Parliament . He remained until after the 2016 parliamentary election , which was lost by the parties that called for Cioloș to continue his term . Cioloș is the founder and current leader of the Freedom , Unity and Solidarity Party ( PLUS ) . In May 2019 , he was elected a Member of the European Parliament , subsequently becoming leader of the new Renew Europe political group . Biography . Background and government career . He was born in Zalău , but spent much of his childhood with his grandparents in nearby Pericei village , where he developed an interest in farming . After graduating from the agricultural high school in Șimleu Silvaniei in 1987 , he attended the Faculty of Horticulture at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca , earning a horticultural engineers degree in 1994 . He also holds degrees in the economy of agricultural development from the École nationale supérieure agronomique de Rennes and from the University of Montpellier 1 , where he respectively earned a masters in 1997 and a doctorate in 2006 . He has belonged to the agricultural think tank Groupe de Bruges since 2000 . Although in Romania Cioloș was a political independent , he was affiliated with the European Peoples Party ( EPP ) at the European level . From 1991 to 1996 , Cioloș completed thirteen months worth of internships on organic farms in the French region of Brittany . In the summer of 1995 , he prepared a rural development project between Savoie and Argeș County , while working at the Aveyron agricultural chamber of commerce in Rodez during 1997 , studying agricultural and rural development in the northern part of that department . In 1997 and 1999 , he interned as an agro-economist at the European Commissions Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development in Brussels , helping prepare the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development ( SAPARD ) . In 1998–1999 , he directed a local rural development programme in Argeș County , again cooperating with Savoie . From 1999 to 2001 , he worked at two agricultural development agencies in France , coordinating joint programmes with Romania in that field . From 2002 to 2003 , as part of the European Commissions delegation to Romania , he helped manage SAPARDs implementation in his native country . From January 2005 to May 2007 , he was an adviser to Romanias Agriculture Minister , and a representative in the Council of the European Unions Special Committee on Agriculture . From May to October 2007 , he was undersecretary of state for European affairs at the ministry . Following the resignation of Decebal Traian Remeș due to a corruption scandal , he was appointed Agriculture Minister in October 2007 , serving until the following December , when Tăriceanus National Liberal Party-led government left office after a parliamentary election . Early in 2009 , he returned to work at the Agriculture and Rural Development DG , and that July , President Traian Băsescu named him to head a one-year commission looking at public agricultural development policies . Nomination and term as EU Commissioner for Agriculture . In October 2009 , the Emil Boc government , hoping to secure the Agriculture portfolio in the second Barroso Commission , nominated Cioloș as Romanias EU Commissioner . The proposal was criticised by the opposition National Liberals ( PNL ) and Social Democrats ( PSD ) , who saw it as a last-ditch maneuver by a government on the brink of collapse , as well as by the Party of European Socialists , who believed that the position ought to have gone to a Social Democrat . Bocs cabinet did indeed collapse the day after nominating Cioloș , when it lost a motion of no confidence . At the end of November , Barroso nominated Cioloș to the Agriculture position , observing that he was the most competent of those submitted for consideration , and lauding his modern vision of agriculture and rural development . The British magazine Farmers Weekly considered the nomination a controversial choice , citing recent mismanagement by Romania of EU funds , but also acknowledged his broad agricultural experience . England and Wales National Farmers Union as well as Scotlands NFU welcomed the appointment . Italian Minister of Agriculture Luca Zaia and French President Nicolas Sarkozy likewise congratulated Cioloș . German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur and British newspaper The Independent both criticised the nomination due to the funds mismanagement issue , with French daily Ouest-France alleging that the cause of British indignation was the perception that Cioloș would be akin to a second French EU Commissioner , given his close ties to that country . After winning approval from the European Parliament in February 2010 , Cioloș set forth his priority : maintaining a thriving agricultural sector in order to ensure food security , environmental preservation and protection of the countryside , help combat global warming and maintain a fair standard of living for farmers . As part of this objective , he promised to continue adapting and restructuring the Common Agricultural Policy . In July 2015 , Barrosos successor Jean-Claude Juncker named Cioloș as his special adviser on international food security . As Prime Minister . In November 2015 , Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned following protests sparked by a deadly nightclub fire , and President Klaus Iohannis appointed Cioloș as his successor . The latter proposed a technocratic cabinet composed of twenty-one members , a third of them women . The cabinet won approval from Parliament on a 389–115 vote : the main Social Democrats ( PSD ) and National Liberals ( PNL ) were both in favour , although a number of legislators from the former party defied the leadership to vote against the cabinet . Additionally , the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats ( ALDE ) was opposed . He considers his two main achievements while in office to have been an increase in transparency , including the online release of salaries and expenditures for public institutions and financing contracts ; and a reduction in bureaucracy that involved the elimination of numerous formalities . Ahead of the 2016 parliamentary election , Cioloș received the endorsement on behalf of the National Liberals ( PNL ) and of the Save Romania Union ( USR ) , in turn urging voters to back either party . When these parties lost the election , the prime minister expressed his regret ; the following month , he was succeeded by Sorin Grindeanu . Return to politics . In March 2018 , Cioloș announced the creation of a new political party , the Romania Together Movement . Because the legal registration of the new political party took too long , Cioloș announced on 15 December 2018 the existence of a new party , already registered by some anonymous collaborators , called the Freedom , Unity and Solidarity Party ( , PLUS ) , thus dropping the former political project . In January 2019 , at the first national convention of PLUS , Cioloș was elected president of the newly emerged political party with 99.17% of the votes . The following month , Cioloș announced the establishment of the 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance between PLUS and the Dan Barna-led Save Romania Union ( USR ) . That May , he was elected a Member of the European Parliament . He subsequently became leader of the new Renew Europe political group , having secured support from En Marche , Ciudadanos and parties from Germany and the Netherlands . Personal life . In 2000 , Cioloș married Valérie Villemin , a French agriculture expert he met while studying in France . The ceremony took place in his grandparents village of Pericei . The couple have no children . He has a younger brother , Sorin . His father insisted on Dacian as a first name , while his French middle name comes from Julien Sorel , protagonist of The Red and the Black , a book that Cioloșs mother read while pregnant with him . Cioloș is a member of the Romanian Orthodox Church . External links . - Curriculum Vitae at the European Commission site