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Eduard Hellvig

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Eduard Hellvig
Picture of Eduard Hellvig on White Background
Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service
In office
2 March 2015 – 3 July 2023
Preceded byFlorian Coldea (interim)
Member of the European Parliament
for Romania
In office
4 September 2013 – 1 March 2015
In office
1 January 2007 – 25 November 2007
Minister of Regional Development and Tourism
In office
7 May 2012 – 19 December 2012
Prime MinisterVictor Ponta
Preceded byCristian Predescu
Succeeded byLiviu Dragnea
Personal details
Born (1974-10-27) October 27, 1974 (age 50)
Zalău, Sălaj County, Socialist Republic of Romania
Political partyConservative Party (2003–2008)
National Liberal Party (2008–2015, 2024-present)
Other political
affiliations		Social Liberal Union (USL)
SpouseAndreea Hellvig
Children1
Alma materBabeș-Bolyai University (B.A.)
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Ph.D.)
AwardsOrder of the Star of Romania, Officer rank

Eduard Raul Hellvig (born 27 October 1974) is a Romanian political scientist, journalist and politician who served as director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) from 2015 to 2023. A former member of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and previously of the Conservative Party (PC), he represented Bihor County in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies from 2004 to 2008, and sat for Ilfov County from 2012 to 2013. In the Victor Ponta cabinet, he was Minister of Regional Development and Tourism in 2012. In 2007, he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Romania, a position he once again took up in 2013, and which he left upon becoming SRI director.

Biography

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Born in Zalău,[1] he attended Babeș-Bolyai University from 1993 to 1997, graduating with a degree in political science. In 2009, he received a doctorate in the same field from the National School of Political Science and Public Administration. From 1997 to 1998, he worked as a stockbroker;[2] during that time, he was also present on the editorial staff for Stelian Tănase's Sfera Politicii magazine. In 1999–2000, during the Romanian Democratic Convention cabinet, he worked as a Chief of Staff for Interior Minister Constantin Dudu Ionescu [ro].[2][3] In 2000, he was on the Presidential campaign team of that cabinet's final prime minister, Mugur Isărescu.[4] From 2001 to 2003 he headed a polling firm, and in 2004 he became director of Sintezis, an information technology company.[2] In 2005, together with Zsolt Szilágyi and others, Hellvig was nominated as a member of Generația Așteptată ("The Awaited Generation"), a project which took inspiration from a campaign in the newspaper Cotidianul, and which sought to evidence and nominate the valuable young contributors to Romanian society.[3]

Hellvig entered the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), as the PC was then called, in 2003, and served as interim head of its Bihor County chapter from 2004 to 2005.[2] Elected to the Chamber in 2004, he served, from 2005 to 2008, on its defense committee. He crossed to the PNL in September 2008,[5] and served as its secretary general from 2011 to 2014. From January to November 2007, he was a Member of the European Parliament.[2][6] At the 2008 election, he ran for re-election to the Chamber, but was defeated. Subsequently, he became a close ally of PNL leader Crin Antonescu.[7]

In May 2012, Hellvig was named Regional Development and Tourism Minister in the new Ponta cabinet, serving until December. Elected to a new term in the Chamber at that point,[2] he initially sat on the foreign affairs committee, until February 2013, when he switched to the European affairs committee. He became one of the Chamber's vice presidents in December 2012.[8] In November 2012, investigators from the National Integrity Agency (ANI) charged that for several months, from the time he took ministerial office until he left Sintezis that September, he was, legally, in a conflict of interest. Hellvig denied the charges, which were upheld the following April by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, prompting him to state he would continue to fight for vindication.[9] In December 2014, the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided in Hellvig's favor, ruling that he had not been in a conflict of interest and rejecting the ANI's claims.[10]

In September 2013, when two vacancies opened in the PNL's delegation to the European Parliament, Hellvig filled one of the openings after resigning from the Chamber.[11] As MEP, he sits on the Internal Market Committee.[12] He won a full term as MEP at the May 2014 European Parliament election.[13] In February 2015, President Klaus Iohannis nominated him to be director of the Romanian Intelligence Service;[14] the following month, a joint session of Parliament confirmed him to the post on a 498–15 vote.[15] A vice president of the PNL at the time, he subsequently resigned from the party, as required, and also from the European Parliament.[16][17] He resigned as SRI director in July 2023, citing a desire to avoid “petrification” in office.[18] He rejoined the PNL in November 2024, in the wake of the presidential election, where the party’s candidate Nicolae Ciucă fared poorly.[19]

In 2019 he was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania, Officer rank.[20]

He and his wife Andreea (née Dumitraș) have a daughter.[2][4]

Notes

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  1. ^ (in Romanian) Olimpia Man, "Ministrul Dezvoltării Regionale vine mâine la Zalău. Vezi de ce", Adevărul, May 24, 2012; accessed May 17, 2013
  2. ^ a b c d e f g (in Romanian) Curriculum vitae at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site; accessed May 17, 2013
  3. ^ a b (in Romanian) Dan Simai, "Viitorul, aproape!", Bihoreanul, November 7, 2005; accessed May 17, 2013
  4. ^ a b (in Romanian) Olimpia Man, "Ministrul Eduard Hellvig, în prima vizită oficială acasă", Adevărul, May 26, 2012; accessed May 18, 2013
  5. ^ (in Romanian) 2004-2008 profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site; accessed May 17, 2013
  6. ^ (in Romanian) "Hellvig se retrage din poziţia de secretar general al PNL" Archived 2014-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, România liberă, March 10, 2014; accessed March 23, 2014
  7. ^ (in Romanian) "Eduard Hellvig, considerat 'omul lui Antonescu', propus la portofoliul pe care l-a deținut Udrea", Mediafax, May 19, 2012; accessed May 19, 2013
  8. ^ (in Romanian) 2012- profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site; accessed May 17, 2013
  9. ^ (in Romanian) Andreea Udrea, "Hellvig, după ce a pierdut procesul cu ANI: 'Este o decizie departe de realitate'", Evenimentul Zilei, April 2, 2013; accessed May 18, 2013
  10. ^ (in Romanian) Otilia Ciocan, "Europarlamentarul Eduard Hellvig câștigă procesul cu ANI", Mediafax, December 10, 2014; accessed December 11, 2014
  11. ^ (in Romanian) Iulia Marin, "Ovidiu Silaghi și Eduard Hellvig, înregistrați ca europarlamentari pe site-ul PE", Adevărul, September 5, 2013; accessed September 12, 2013
  12. ^ (in Romanian) Profile at the European Parliament site; accessed February 6, 2014
  13. ^ (in Romanian) "Cine sunt cei 32 de europarlamentari români" ("Who Are the 32 Romanian MEPs"), Gândul, May 26, 2014; accessed May 26, 2014
  14. ^ (in Romanian) Larisa Bernaschi, Carmen Vintilă, "Klaus Iohannis: L-am propus pe Eduard Hellvig în funcția de șef al SRI" ("Klaus Iohannis: I Have Nominated Eduard Hellvig as Head of the SRI"), Evenimentul Zilei, February 19, 2015; accessed February 19, 2015
  15. ^ (in Romanian) "Parlamentul a votat numirea lui Eduard Hellvig la şefia SRI" ("Parliament Approves Eduard Hellvig's Nomination as SRI Chief"), Mediafax, March 2, 2015; accessed March 2, 2015
  16. ^ (in Romanian) Cristian Andrei, "Eduard Hellvig este noul director al SRI" ("Eduard Hellvig Is New SRI Director"), Gândul, March 2, 2015; accessed March 2, 2015
  17. ^ (in Romanian) Andi Manciu, "Stroe (PNL): Locul europarlamentar al lui Hellvig, preluat de următorul pe listă, Mihai Ţurcanu" ("Stroe (PNL): Hellvig's European Parliament Seat, Taken by the Next Man on the List, Mihai Țurcanu"), Mediafax, March 3, 2015; accessed March 20, 2015
  18. ^ (in Romanian) "Șeful SRI și-a dat demisia" ("SRI Director Resigns"), Hotnews, July 3, 2023; accessed July 3, 2023
  19. ^ (in Romanian) "Eduard Hellvig, fostul șef al SRI a revenit în PNL" ("Former SRI Director Eduard Hellvig Rejoins PNL"), Radio Free Europe, November 26, 2024; accessed December 1, 2024
  20. ^ "Ordinul Național Steaua României a fost conferit directorului SRI și ministrului apărării naționale". www.juridice.ro (in Romanian). November 29, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
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