Adrian Nastase

Prime Minister of Romania

(Official website, Romania Online, BBC, CNN)

Adrian Nastase became Romania's prime minister on 28 December 2000 after centrist and right-wing parties in the country's parliament supported the leftist minority government of his Party of Social Democracy (PDSR).

Born on 22 June 1950 in Bucharest, Nastase obtained his LL.M. in Law, M.A. in Sociology and Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Bucharest. During his education, he served as a visiting fellow with the human rights and peace division of UNESCO and with the International Research Institute for Peace in Oslo.

Nastase's career between 1973 and 1990 included positions at the Romanian Academy, the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Between 1990 and 1997, he served as professor of public international law at a number of universities including the University of Bucharest and the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Nastase embarked on his political career in 1990, when he was elected member of parliament with the National Salvation Front. After just a month in office, on 28 June 1990, he was appointed foreign minister, a post he occupied until October 1992.

Between 1992 and 1996 Nastase was president of the Chamber of Deputies. From 1993 to 1997 he was president of the PDSR executive board, and he served as a member of the Romanian Parliamentary Commission to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1996 to 2000. In January 2001, Nastase was elected president of the PDSR (later changed to PSD).

When he was appointed prime minister in December 2000, Nastase vowed to speed up economic growth, fight corruption, reduce bureaucracy and advance the country's accession to the EU and NATO. He said NATO was "the only reasonable option" to guarantee Romania's security.