Calin Popescu Tariceanu
Prime Minister of Romania
(RFE/RL, Radio Romania International, European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, Wikipedia.org) |
Calin Popescu Tariceanu was sworn in as Romania's prime minister on 29 December 2004, one day after a centre-right coalition government proposed by him was approved by the country's parliament. He replaced Adrian Nastase of the Social Democratic Party in the post.
Born on 14 January 1952, Tariceanu is a graduate of the Institute of Civil Engineering in Bucharest and has a Masters in Informatics and Mathematics from the University of Bucharest.
From 1976 to 1979, Tariceanu served as an engineer at the National Water Administration in Arges county division and at a construction company in Bucharest. Between 1980 and 1991, he was a professor at the Faculty of Hydrotechnics in Bucharest.
In 1990, he founded Radio Contact, the first private radio network in Romania. Two years later, he became the general manager of Radio Contact Romania, serving in the post until 1996.
In 1994, Tariceanu became a founding member of the Automobile Manufacturers and Importers Association and its chairman until 1997. He was re-elected to the post in 2001.
Tariceanu entered politics soon after the fall of communism in Romania, becoming a founding member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), when it was re-established in early 1990. He served as the party's executive secretary until 1992 and as a member of its constituent assembly in parliament. In 1993, Tariceanu was elected deputy chairman of the PNL, and has been a member of parliament since 1996.
Tariceanu served as deputy prime minister and minister of industry and trade in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea from 1996 to 1997, when the restructuring of Romania's mining sector began. The restructuring of Romania's oil sector and of the Romanian National Electric Company are among the other achievements Tariceanu is credited with.
In 2003, the PNL formed the Justice and Truth Alliance with Traian Basescu's Democratic Party. Tariceanu was the manager of the alliance's campaign for the June 2004 local elections.
In early October 2004, when Theodor Stolojan stepped down as PNL leader, Tariceanu took over as the party's interim president and co-chair of the Justice and Truth Alliance. He was elected as a member of parliament on 28 November 2004.
After winning the presidential runoff against Nastase on 12 December 2004, Basescu asked Tariceanu to form the country's next government.
Presenting his government's programme to parliament, Tariceanu pledged to fight corruption and poverty and carry out reforms needed for his country's entry into the EU in 2007. The first step his cabinet took was to lower income and corporate profit taxes to a 16 per cent flat rate in a bid to reduce the size of the country's black economy and encourage foreign direct investment.
Tariceanu is married and has two children.
