Adina-Ioana Vălean (born 16 February 1968) is a Romanian politician who served as

European Commissioner for Transport The European Commissioner for Transport is a member of the European Commission whose portfolio includes the planning and development of homogeneous transport policies and regulations across the Union, of the Trans-European Transport Network as ...

under the leadership of

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission, also known as president of the College of Commissioners is the Head of government, head of the European Commission, the Executive (government), executive branch of the European Union (EU). The president ...

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; ; born 8 October 1958) is a German politician, serving as president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding position ...

from 2019 until June 2024. She served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 2007 until 2019, where she chaired the

European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) is a Committees of the European Parliament, committee of the European Parliament. Its areas of responsibility relate to industry, especially technology-intensive manufacturing, information techno ...

in 2019. In the

2024 European elections The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

she was again elected and became a member of the European Parliament.

Education

Vălean has a master's degree in European Integration and Security Studies, postgraduate studies in National Security and Defence Management and a bachelor's degree in Mathematics.

Political career

Career in national politics

A member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), and a member of the European Peoples Party, Vălean was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

on the Justice and Truth list for

Călărași County Călărași () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Muntenia, with the county seat at Călărași. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 285,050 and a population density of 56.02/km2. * Romanians – 94.1% ...

(during the 2004 elections).

Member of the European Parliament, 2007–2019

Vălean became a

on 1 January 2007, with the

accession of Romania to the European Union On 1 January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became member states of the European Union (EU) in the fifth wave of EU enlargement. Bulgaria and Romania did not have a referendum related to European Union accession. Negotiations Romania was the f ...

. Throughout her time in parliament, she served on the

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

; in 2019, she became the committee's chairwoman. During her time on the committee, she was the Parliament's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the

European Union roaming regulations The Roaming Regulation 2022(EU) 2022/612 bans roaming charges (Eurotariff) within the European Economic Area (EEA), which consists of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. ...

. From 2014 to 2017, Vălean was one of the

Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament There are fourteen vice-presidents of the European Parliament who sit in for the president in presiding over the plenary of the European Parliament. Role Vice-presidents are members of the Bureau Bureau ( ) may refer to: Agencies and organiza ...

under the leadership of President

Antonio Tajani Antonio Tajani (; born 4 August 1953) is an Italian politician who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs since 22 October 2022. He served as President of the Europe ...

; in that capacity, she was in charge of

information and communications technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...

(ICT). She also chaired the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety from 2017 until 2019 and served on the

Committee on Petitions The Committee on Petitions (PETI) is a permanent committee of the European Parliament to offer a petition process including a web portal to create and admit petitions. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Dolors Montserrat, member of the ...

from 2009 until 2014. In addition to her committee assignments, Vălean was part of the Parliaments delegations with the countries of

Southeast Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...

(2007–2009); the

Euronest Parliamentary Assembly The EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly is the inter-parliamentary forum in which members of the European Parliament and the national parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia participate and forge closer political and economic ...

(2009–2014); and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(since 2014). She was also a member of the

Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue Taking the existing interparliamentary relationship as its basis, the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue (TLD) aims to strengthen and enhance the level of political discourse between European and American legislators. It does so against the backgr ...

(TLD); the European Internet Forum; and the European Parliament Intergroup on Long Term Investment and Reindustrialisation.

European Commissioner for Transport, 2019–2024

In November 2019, the center-right government under

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Ludovic Orban Ludovic Orban (; born 25 May 1963) is a Romanian engineer and politician who was the prime minister of Romania from November 2019 to December 2020. He was president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) between 2017 and 2021, which expelled him sh ...

put Vălean and Siegfried Mureșan forward as candidates to be the country's next European Commissioner. Vălean was subsequently picked to be the

. In early March 2020, Vălean was appointed by von der Leyen to serve on the commission's special task force to coordinate the European Union's response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Member of the European Parliament, 2024–present

In the

, Vălean was re-elected to the European Parliament. In order to fulfil her mandate, she resigned from her position as EU Commissioner on 15 July 2024. Her duties were temporarily taken over by Wopke Hoekstra, Commissioner for Climate Action.

Personal life

Vălean is married to

Crin Antonescu George Crin Laurențiu Antonescu (; born 21 September 1959) is a Romanian politician and history teacher who served as Acting President of Romania in 2012. He was also candidate in the 2009 and 2025 presidential elections, finishing both in thir ...

and has one child.

References

Profile at the Chamber of Deputies site

External links

European Parliament profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valean, Adina 1968 births Living people MEPs for Romania 2007 MEPs for Romania 2007–2009 MEPs for Romania 2009–2014 MEPs for Romania 2014–2019 MEPs for Romania 2024–2029 National Liberal Party (Romania) MEPs National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians People from Prahova County Romanian activists Romanian schoolteachers Romanian women activists University of Bucharest alumni Romanian European commissioners Women European commissioners Women MEPs for Romania European commissioners (2019–2024)