Mihai Stănişoară

Mihai Stănişoară (born June 11, 1962) is a Romanian engineer and politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), he was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Mehedinţi County from 2000 until March 2007, and has sat in the Romanian Senate since December 2008, representing the same county. In the Emil Boc cabinet, he was Minister of National Defence from December 2008 to December 2009.

He and his wife Codruţa-Mirela have a son and a daughter.^[1]

Biography

He was born in Craiova and in 1986 graduated from the Mechanics Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute of Timişoara. He holds degrees from the Carol I National Defence University (2001), the Higher College of National Security (2005) and the NATO Defence College (2006), as well as a doctorate in Technical Sciences from the Technical University of Timişoara (2003); since 2006, he has been pursuing a doctorate in Public Order and National Security from the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Police Academy. From 1986 to 1989, he worked as an engineer at the Drobeta-Turnu Severin Measurement and Control Devices Factory, and from 1988 to 1990, he was a university assistant at the Technical University of Timişoara. From 1989 to 1990, he was a design engineer at Timişoara's Centre for Appliances Research and Technological Engineering. From 1992 to 1994, he was secretary general of the Mehedinţi County Chamber of Commerce and Industry, serving as its president from 1994 to 1999.^[2]

Starting in 1997, he was vice president of the permanent bureau of the Mehedinţi County Democratic Party (PD, later PD-L), and has been its president since 2000.^[1] In 2000, Stănişoară worked as secretary general at the Ministry of National Defence. That year, running on the PD ticket, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. He served on its foreign affairs committee and headed the Romanian Parliament's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.^[2] Additionally, he joined the PD's permanent national bureau as executive secretary in 2001.^[1] Re-elected in 2004, he became president of the defence, public order and national security committee, and was vice president of the Romanian Parliament's delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.^[2] During this term, he was accused of abuse of office and influence-peddling, after allegedly stopping an Interior Ministry investigation into the firing of the head of the Mehedinţi County ambulance service.^[3] Upon leaving the Chamber in 2007, he became National Security Adviser to President Traian Băsescu, a position he held until 2008.^[2] At the 2008 election, he won a Senate seat^[4] and was named to the Boc cabinet the following month.^[5] Upon winning confirmation, he pledged adequate funding for active units, increased interoperability with allied armies, the purchase of armoured vehicles for the Land Forces and of upgraded airplanes and surface-to-air missiles, and modernisation of the Navy's frigates.^[6] In summer 2009, during Stănişoară's term, Romanian troops withdrew from the Multinational Force - Iraq.^[7][8] His ministerial term ended when he was not reappointed to a new cabinet under Boc at the end of 2009.^[9]

He holds patents for two inventions in the field of fine mechanics.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} (Romanian) Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site; accessed June 28, 2009
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} (Romanian) Profile at the Romanian Government site; accessed June 28, 2009
3. ^ (Romanian) Anca Răscutoi, "Guvernul Emil Boc în alb şi negru" ("Emil Boc Government in Black and White"), 22, 23 December 2008; accessed June 28, 2009
4. ^ (Romanian) Election results, alegeri.tv; accessed June 28, 2009
5. ^ (Romanian) "Guvern de regăţeni, cu 'moţ' ardelean" ("Old Kingdom Government, with a Few Transylvanians"), Adevărul, 19 December 2008; accessed June 28, 2009
6. ^ (Romanian) "Candidatura lui Mihai Stănişoară pentru funcţia de ministru al Apărării, avizată de comisii" ("Nomination of Mihai Stănişoară for Defence Minister, Approved by Committees"), Mediafax, 20 December 2008; accessed June 28, 2009
7. ^ (Romanian) Oana Dobre, "Băsescu a dat startul retragerii din Irak" ("Băsescu Begins Withdrawal from Iraq"), Evenimentul Zilei, 5 June 2009; accessed June 28, 2009
8. ^ (Romanian) "Irak / Trupele româneşti se retrag până la 31 iulie 2009" ("Iraq: Romanian Troops to Withdraw by 31 July 2009"), Jurnalul Naţional, 29 April 2009; accessed September 4, 2010
9. ^ (Romanian) Monica Iordache Apostol, "Guvernul Boc, zero barat" ("Boc Government, Total Zero"), Jurnalul Naţional, 31 August 2010; accessed September 4, 2010

External links

• (Romanian) Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site

Persondata
Name	Stanisoara, Mihai
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Date of birth	June 11, 1962
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