Corina Crețu (born 24 June 1967[1]) is a Romanian politician and a former European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Crețu is a member of the Romanian PRO Romania[9] and Member of the European Parliament (sitting with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats).[10] Between June 2014 and October 2014, she served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament.[3][10]

Corina Crețu
Crețu in 2014
European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms
In office
1 November 2014 – 1 July 2019
PresidentJean-Claude Juncker
Preceded byJohannes Hahn
Succeeded byJohannes Hahn (Acting)
Personal details
Born (1967-06-24) 24 June 1967 (age 57)
Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania
Political partySocial Democratic Party (Before 2019)
PRO Romania (2019–2024)
Independent (2024-)
Spouse
Ovidiu Rogoz
(m. 2012)
EducationBucharest University of
Economic Studies

Political career

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Crețu studied at the Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Cybernetics, graduating in 1989.[10] She spent a year working as an economist at a factory in Blaj until 1990.[10][11] She then worked as a journalist and political commentator between 1990 and 1992 for newspapers Azi, Curierul Național, and Cronica Română[10] before joining the Spokesperson's office of the Cabinet of President Ion Iliescu (1992-1996).[1][10]

In 1996, she became a member of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PDSR).

Between 2000 and 2004, Crețu was Presidential Advisor, Presidential Spokesperson[1][4][10] and Head of the Public Communication Department[1] during Ion Iliescu's second mandate as Romanian president.

In 2000 she was elected Deputy in Romania's Parliament and, in 2004, to the Romanian Senate.[1] As a Senator, she sat on the Foreign Policy Committee, and was a full member of the Romanian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE. In January 2005, at the invitation of the Jordanian Government, she conducted a training seminar at Amman for appointees to spokesperson positions in Iraq. Crețu was also an OSCE observer to the parliamentary election of March 2005 in Moldova and to the general election of 2006 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[12]

In 2005, Crețu was appointed a member of the Romanian parliamentary delegation to the European Parliament.[10] She was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP), sitting with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats[10] on January 1, 2007[1] following the accession of Romania to the European Union, being re-elected as an MEP in 2009[1] and 2014.[10]

In 2013, she was elected vice-president of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD).[1][13]

Crețu announced on 17 January 2019 that she would be a candidate in the European Parliament election on behalf of the party Pro Romania.[14] She was at the second position in the list after Victor Ponta.[15][16]

She joined Victor Ponta's PRO Romania in March 2019.[9]

Personal life

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Her father, Traian Crețu (1937–1995), was Professor of Physics at the Politehnica University of Bucharest.[17] Her mother, Verginia Crețu is a child development psychologist and was a professor at the University of Bucharest.[18]

In 2012, Crețu married Ovidiu Rogoz, a Romanian businessman, at the New Church of St Spyridon in Bucharest.[10][19]

Personal e-mails Cretu had exchanged with then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell were accessed by the hacker Guccifer, who broke into Powell’s personal email account and posted a link to some of the correspondence on Powell’s Facebook page.[20] Powell said in a statement that he had stayed in touch with Cretu by email since stepping down as secretary of state in 2005, and that "over time the emails became of a very personal nature, but did not result in an affair.”[21] He added that "those types of emails ended a few years ago. There was no affair then and there is not one now.”[21]

Honours

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Agerpres (29 May 2014). "2014EP BIOGRAPHY MEP Corina Cretu". Archived from the original on 17 December 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  2. ^ "Corina Cretu". Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Corina Cretu". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  4. ^ a b EurActiv.com (2 October 2014). "EPP holds Damocles' sword over Crețu". Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  5. ^ Mihai, Cătălina (10 September 2014). "Corina Crețu, desemnată comisar european pentru Politică Regională. Componența completă a viitoarei Comisii Europene". Mediafax. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  6. ^ Tudor, Iulian (3 October 2014). "Corina Crețu, printre premianții Comisiei Europene". RomaniaTV. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  7. ^ "Commission: Corina Cretu n'a pas vraiment crevé l'écran (in French)". Lalibre.be. 1 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Corina Cretu gets positive opinion after EP hearing". The Diplomat Bucharest. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Corina Creţu s-a înscris în Pro România". www.bursa.ro. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dadacul, Liviu (10 September 2014). "BIOGRAFIE: Cine este Corina Creţu, noul comisar european pentru Politică Regională". Mediafax. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  11. ^ "EC president Junker prefers Corina Cretu for Regional Policy European Commissioner mandate". Romania-Insider. 2 September 2014. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  12. ^ "Corina Creţu, observator OSCE la alegerile din Bosnia/Herțegovina (in Romanian)". Amos News. 29 September 2006. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  13. ^ "Victor Ponta, la TVR, după reconfirmarea în funcţia de preşedinte al PSD: Greul acum începe (in Romanian)". Stirile TVR. 20 April 2013. Archived from the original on 18 January 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  14. ^ Redacția (2019-01-17). "Oficial: Corina Crețu va candida din partea partidului lui Victor Ponta la europarlamentare". G4Media (in Romanian). Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  15. ^ "Europarlamentare. Țuțuianu: Victor Ponta și Corina Crețu deschid lista Pro România". www.dcnews.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  16. ^ "Victor Ponta, Corina Creţu şi Mihai Tudose deschid lista candidaţilor Pro România pentru europarlamentare". www.digi24.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  17. ^ Father, Corina Cretu's personal website, 10 July 2008 (in Romanian)
  18. ^ "There Is No Alternative to Community Based Care", speech by Corina Cretu at the 2014 Annual Conference Eurochild, 28 November 2014
  19. ^ "Corina Crețu s-a căsătorit cu omul de afaceri Ovidiu Rogoz" ("Corina Cretu married to businessman Ovidiu Rogoz"), DC News of Râmnicu Vâlcea, 10 November 2012 (in Romanian)
  20. ^ "Colin Powell denies affair after emails are hacked by mysterious 'Guccifer'" by Jonathan Easley,The Hill, 1 August 2013
  21. ^ a b "Colin Powell forced to deny affair with Romanian diplomat" by Raf Sanchez, The Daily Telegraph, 2 August 2013
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Political offices
Preceded by Romanian European Commissioner
2014–2019
Succeeded by
Preceded by European Commissioner for Regional Policy
2014–2019
Succeeded by