Radu Berceanu
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Radu Mircea Berceanu (; born 5 March 1953) is a Romanian engineer and politician. A former member of the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), he was a member of the
Romanian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house in Romania's Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Romania, parliament. It has 312 regular seats to which Chamber of Deputies, deputies are elected by direct popular vote using party-list proportiona ...
for
Dolj County Dolj County (; originally meant ''Dol(no)-Jiu River, Jiu'', "lower Jiu", as opposed to ''Gorj'' (''upper Jiu'')) is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Oltenia, with the capital city at Craiova. Demographics In 2011, ...
from 1990 to 2004 and sat in the
Romanian Senate 2012–2016 2008–2012 In December 2008, the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) and the political alliance established between the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Conservative Party (PC) formed a coalition government. 2004–2008 In the ...
from 2004 to 2012 (except for the period of April–December 2008), representing the same county. In the
Radu Vasile Radu Vasile (; 10 October 1942 – 3 July 2013) was a Romanian politician, historian, academic/professor, and poet. Originally a member of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚ-CD), Vasile served as the Prime Minister of Romani ...
and
Mugur Isărescu Constantin Mugur Isărescu (; born 1 August 1949) is the governor of the National Bank of Romania, a position he has been holding since September 1990, with the sole exception of a period of time of one year (22 December 1999 to 28 December 2000 ...
cabinets, he was
Minister of Industry and Commerce A ministry of trade and industry, ministry of commerce, ministry of commerce and industry or variations is a ministry that is concerned with a nation's trade, industry and commerce. Notable examples are: List *Algeria: Ministry of Industry and ...
from 1998 to 2000; in the first
Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu (; born 14 January 1952) is a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania, prime minister of Romania from 2004 to 2008. He was also president of the National Liberal Party (Romania), Na ...
cabinet, he was Minister of Transport, Construction and Tourism from 2006 to 2007; and in the
Emil Boc Emil Boc (; born 6 September 1966) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 22 December 2008 until 6 February 2012 and is the current mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city of Transylvania, where he was first elected in J ...
cabinet, he was Minister of Transport and Infrastructure from December 2008 to September 2010. From October to December 2009, he was also acting
Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...
after a political crisis that led to the
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...
’s withdrawal from government. In 1978, he married Mihaela-Marinela Bădîrcea (b. 1954). The couple have two sons, Victor (b. 1981) and Andrei (b. 1984).Curriculum Vitae
. Retrieved 10 May 2009


Biography

He was born in
Râmnicu Vâlcea Râmnicu Vâlcea (formerly ''Râmnic'', ) is a city in Romania. Located in the south-central part of the country, in the historical province of Oltenia, it is the seat of Vâlcea County and its main urban settlement. According to the 2021 Romanian ...
; his father was an aviator, and his mother, a nurse. After completing secondary studies there in 1972 at Vasile Roaită Theoretical High School (now Mircea cel Bătrân), he enrolled at the Polytehnic Institute of
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
. He studied aerospace design and graduated in 1978. He also took courses on parliamentarism in Canada in 1990 and on democratic institutions in the United States in 1991. After university, Berceanu worked as an engineer in
Craiova Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It i ...
from 1978 to 1981 at a flight testing centre. From 1984 to 1989 he worked as an engineer at the city's airplane factory. Between 1980 and 1989, he taught at an industrial high school in Craiova.Profile at the Romanian Government site
; retrieved 10 May 2009
He also took up
scale model A scale model is a physical model that is geometrically similar to an object (known as the ''prototype''). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small protot ...
ing; he has won prizes for his
ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...
and
aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...
models. During the 1980s, he set up an amateur scale modeling circle for students, which was attended by future literary critic Angelo Mitchievici. According to Mitchievici's memoir of life under the
communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...
, these circumstances allowed Berceanu to attend workshops in various
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...
countries, "and he probably thus had the opportunity to engage in some ''bişniţă'' oughly, grey market transactions">grey_market.html" ;"title="oughly, grey market">oughly, grey market transactions" After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Berceanu entered politics. He was Dolj County’s vice president of the Council of the National Salvation Front (Romania), National Salvation Front in December 1989-January 1990. From February to May 1990, he was president of his county's
Provisional Council of National Unity The Provisional Council of National Unity (PCNU; , ) was a provisional governmental body during the early 1990s in Romania. At that time, it was headed by Ion Iliescu Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer w ...
and belonged to the main council in Bucharest. From its founding in February 1990 to his resignation in 2012 to make way for younger leadership, he headed the Dolj County PD-L chapter and that of its predecessor, the Democratic Party (PD), of which he was a founding member. In 2005, he militated in favor of preserving the PD’s social-democratic orientation, losing out to a Christian Democratic faction. In the May 1990 election, he won a seat in the chamber. He did so again in 1992, 1996 and 2000. While there, he served as the body's vice president at various times between 1992 and 2004. From his election in 2004 to April 2008, he sat in the Senate and was vice president there as well. He then resigned to run in the June local election for president of the Dolj County Council and while gaining a seat as a county councillor was defeated on a 42–33.8 margin by a
Social Democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
candidate. At the November 2008 parliamentary election, Berceanu regained his Senate seat and was named transport minister the following month. From October 2009, when the Social Democrats left the cabinet because of a political crisis, to that December, when a new cabinet was approved, he was also the acting agriculture minister. After re-assuming ministerial office in 2008, Berceanu announced
motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
construction as his priority (despite serious budget cuts brought about by the
2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
), although acknowledging the poor state of national roads and the state railway
Căile Ferate Române Căile Ferate Române (; abbreviated as the CFR) was the state railway carrier of Romania. The company was dissolved on 1 October 1998 by splitting into several successor companies. CFR as an entity existed from 1880, even though the first ra ...
(CFR), as well as the need to focus on airports (such as the Braşov Airport currently under construction). He vowed to complete the
A2 motorway A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''English alphabet#Letter names, a'' (pronounced ), plural ...
by 2011 (notwithstanding a 2006 promise to complete it by summer 2008), and a Bucharest- Braşov motorway as well as a Bucharest-
Calafat Calafat () is a city in Dolj County, southern Romania, in the region of Oltenia. It lies on the river Danube, opposite the Bulgarian city of Vidin, to which it is linked by the Calafat-Vidin Bridge, opened in 2013. After the destruction of the b ...
one (ending at the
Calafat-Vidin Bridge The New Europe Bridge, also known as Danube Bridge 2 (; ) is a road and rail bridge between the cities of Vidin, Bulgaria, and Calafat, Romania. It is the second bridge on the shared section of the Danube between the two countries. It is an ext ...
) by 2014. This emphasis meant plans for twelve express roads had to be scrapped. Also planned by him is an hourly train from Gara de Nord to
Otopeni Otopeni () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, neighbouring the north of Bucharest along the DN1 road to Ploiești. It has 21,750 inhabitants, of which 99.0% are ethnic Romanians. One village, Odăile, is administered by the city. H ...
, with a bus transfer to the nearby airport. He has been a strong critic of his predecessor
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 ...
, whom he accused of spending substantial amounts of money on studies for express roads, "not one metre" of which was built under Orban (and which, as a motorway advocate, he derided as being outdated). He has announced plans for major restructuring at the CFR, including a potential 12,000 layoffs, for which he again blamed the previous government. Orban fired back, labelling the 2009 transport budget a "cruel mockery" from an infrastructure development standpoint, accusing Berceanu of blocking the Calafat-Vidin project and of "not lifting a finger" on the Craiova- Piteşti express road, and stating his "personal feeling" that Berceanu's days as minister were numbered. He was dismissed a year and a half later, following a cabinet reshuffle. In April 2012, Berceanu announced his decision to retire from politics, and he did not run at the December election. Berceanu's wealth has drawn attention: in 2008, his declared assets included bank accounts worth over
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
800,000, three apartments (including one in Spain), a
Toyota RAV4 The is a compact crossover SUV produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is known for starting the wave of compact crossovers. The RAV4 is one of the best-selling SUVs of all time. By February 2020, a total of 10 million RAV4 ...
and a Mercedes-Benz W220. In 2006, he made public his 300-page Securitate file, revealing that the communist secret police agency had harassed and threatened him and his wife in the autumn of 1989 for allegedly intending to flee the country using a Hang gliding, hang glider he had built. He noted having given "about two ink cartridges' worth of declarations", that he was almost excluded from the Romanian Communist Party in 1981, and that, despite being the first party member in his family, he was known for his anti-regime position and never informed on his colleagues."Radu Berceanu, un Balzac al Securităţii Statului" ("Radu Berceanu, a Balzac of the Securitate")
''Cotidianul'', 7 August 2006; retrieved 10 May 2009
In 2000, President of France, French President Jacques Chirac conferred the rank of ''Chevalier'' of the Ordre national du Mérite upon Berceanu. Within his party, he has been secretary, vice president for organisational affairs, and vice president. He has also served as a delegate from the Romanian Parliament to the Council of Europe (1996–1998, 2000–2006, 2007–2008).


Notes


External links


Official site

Profile at the Romanian Senate site

Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berceanu, Radu Democratic Liberal Party (Romania) politicians Councillors in Romania Members of the Senate of Romania Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Ministers of industry and commerce of Romania Ministers of transport of Romania Romanian engineers Romanian schoolteachers Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church People from Râmnicu Vâlcea Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite Politehnica University of Bucharest alumni 1953 births Living people