Norica Nicolai
Encyclopedia
Norica Nicolai is a Romania
n lawyer and politician. A member of the National Liberal Party
(PNL), she was a member of the Romanian Senate
for Cluj County
from 2000 to 2008, and has been a Member
of the European Parliament
since 2009. She was at the centre of a conflict between Prime Minister
Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
and President
Traian Băsescu
in early 2008, with the latter rejecting, ultimately successfully, the former's nomination of Nicolai to be Justice Minister.
She is married and has one child.
, and, following secondary studies at the town's George Enescu High School, in 1983 she graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest
; she also holds a doctorate in criminal law. From 1983 to 1991, she was a prosecutor at the Olteniţa
courthouse, and from 1991 to 1993 was legal adviser to a rural trucking company in Călăraşi
. She worked as a lawyer in the same city from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2001, Nicolai was president of the Economic and Social Council, a public institution that facilitates dialogue between employers, unions and the government; and was a secretary of state at the Labour Ministry from 1997 to 2000. She belonged to the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party
(PNŢ-CD) from 1997 until August 2000, when it expelled her for signing a declaration in support of then-PNL member Theodor Stolojan
; the PNŢ-CD supported Mugur Isărescu
in the upcoming presidential election
.
In autumn 2000, by then a PNL member, she was elected
to the Senate, being re-elected
in 2004. In 2006, she was the subject of controversy when cameras caught her niece in her Senate chair with a voting card in her hand, although Nicolai stated her niece did not actually cast a vote. The following year, she became a vice president both of her party and of the Senate; she was the first woman to preside over a session of that chamber. While in the Senate, she served on the defence, anti-corruption, equal opportunity, and judiciary committees, including as president of the last from March 2008. During Tăriceanu's time in office from 2004, her name was floated for the Justice, Interior and Defence portfolios, but she was only offered the Labour Ministry when his second cabinet was formed, a nomination she declined.
, she was nominated as Justice Minister by Prime Minister
Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
; the latter was initially said to have had misgivings about her connections with the secret services and her Communist-era
judgeship, but went ahead after public pressure from party colleagues and a near-unanimous vote of approval from the PNL political bureau. Upon being nominated, she vowed to increase the independence of the judiciary and improve its image, to push a new penal code through Parliament (the last one dating to 1969), and to fight corruption. The following month, a series of events ultimately derailed her nomination. President
Traian Băsescu
began by asking Tăriceanu to withdraw Nicolai, claiming the negative image she had acquired as senator, in particular through the affair involving her niece, would not be conducive to increased public trust in the judiciary. The prime minister responded that, as no legal argument for barring her from the position had been raised, the president had no power to veto the appointment.
Băsescu then declared he would never name Nicolai as Justice Minister, and his office released documents relating to two procedural errors it said she had committed while a prosecutor in Olteniţa. (This came after Tăriceanu refused several telephone calls from Băsescu, and the entire affair formed part of a larger power struggle between the two.) The first referred to a 1987 case where she drew up an indictment and an innocent person was held under arrest for eighteen days as a result—this individual had the same name as the one being sought by the authorities (wanted for wheat
theft), but upon realising this, Clinci altered his arrest warrant to match the other man's information rather than reveal the mistake. In a 1991 case (following the 1989 fall of the Communist regime
), she represented a foreign citizen in an adoption
case, despite her status as prosecutor, and then claimed not to know that the law forbade this; she left her position a month later. Nicolai in turn produced a document indicating the individual in the 1987 case did not spend any time in prison (and calling Băsescu's version of events an "insolent lie"), and said she appeared in the adoption case as a private individual, not a prosecutor, and did not violate the law. Nicolai further opined that the document release was reminiscent of the methods of the Securitate
secret police; the PNL's UDMR
government partners also weighed in on the prime minister's side, as did the opposition PSD
. Others too viewed the document release as "questionable", with several lawyers stressing the confidential nature of the files.
Later, Băsescu asked Tăriceanu to name an interim minister until a permanent officeholder could be found; Defence Minister Teodor Meleşcanu
assumed that role. Băsescu and Tăriceanu then held an inconclusive meeting about the Justice portfolio; afterwards, the latter took the case to the Constitutional Court
, reiterating his claim that Băsescu lacked the authority to stop the appointment. In early February 2008, the court ruled that Băsescu could legally reject the prime minister's nominee for a vacant ministerial position once, and that Tăriceanu was obliged to choose someone else for the position. By the end of the month, the two had agreed on a new minister, and Cătălin Predoiu
took office.
, Nicolai was defeated in her bid for a third Senate term: she finished first in her constituency but failed to obtain a seat under the mixed member proportional representation
system introduced at that election. She was re-elected as a PNL vice president at a party congress in March 2009, and at the same time supported Crin Antonescu
's successful bid to become party president. In what some saw as a quid pro quo, she was placed first on the party's lists at the June 2009 European Parliament election
, where she won a seat. There, she sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs
, where she is vice president of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence
.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n lawyer and politician. A member of the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
(PNL), she was a member of the Romanian Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
for Cluj County
Cluj County
Cluj ; is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Cluj-Napoca.-Demographics:In 2007, it had a population of 692,316 and a population density of 104/km².*Romanians – 80%*Hungarians – 17.5%*Roma – 2.5%-Geography:...
from 2000 to 2008, and has been a Member
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
since 2009. She was at the centre of a conflict between Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
Calin Popescu-Tariceanu
Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian politician. He was the Prime Minister of Romania between 29 December 2004 and 22 December 2008...
and President
President of Romania
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...
Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...
in early 2008, with the latter rejecting, ultimately successfully, the former's nomination of Nicolai to be Justice Minister.
She is married and has one child.
Early career
She was born in SinaiaSinaia
Sinaia is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. The town was named after Sinaia Monastery, around which it was built; the monastery in turn is named after the Biblical Mount Sinai...
, and, following secondary studies at the town's George Enescu High School, in 1983 she graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
; she also holds a doctorate in criminal law. From 1983 to 1991, she was a prosecutor at the Olteniţa
Oltenita
Olteniţa is a city in Romania in the Călăraşi County on the left bank of the Argeş River where its waters reach the Danube through a network of streams and marshes.Oltenita stands just across the Danube from the Bulgarian city of Tutrakan.-History:...
courthouse, and from 1991 to 1993 was legal adviser to a rural trucking company in Călăraşi
Calarasi
Călăraşi , the capital of Călăraşi County and Sud-Muntenia Region in the Wallachia region, is situated in south-east Romania, on the bank of Danube's Borcea branch, at about 12 kilometers from the Bulgarian border and 125 kilometers from Bucharest....
. She worked as a lawyer in the same city from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2001, Nicolai was president of the Economic and Social Council, a public institution that facilitates dialogue between employers, unions and the government; and was a secretary of state at the Labour Ministry from 1997 to 2000. She belonged to the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party
Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (Romania)
The Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party is a Romanian Christian-Democratic party...
(PNŢ-CD) from 1997 until August 2000, when it expelled her for signing a declaration in support of then-PNL member Theodor Stolojan
Theodor Stolojan
Theodor Dumitru Stolojan is a Romanian politician. An economist by training, he is a leader of the Democratic-Liberal Party. He previously served as Prime minister of Romania from September 1991 to November 1992. He and his wife Elena have a son, Vlad Stolojan, and a daughter, Ada Palea...
; the PNŢ-CD supported Mugur Isărescu
Mugur Isarescu
Mugur Isărescu is the Governor of the National Bank of Romania. From 22 December 1999 to 28 November 2000 he served as Prime Minister. He is a member of the Romanian Academy....
in the upcoming presidential election
Romanian presidential election, 2000
These are the results of the Romanian presidential election of November 26, run-off held on December 10, 2000:-First round:-Run-off:...
.
In autumn 2000, by then a PNL member, she was elected
Romanian legislative election, 2000
Legislative elections where be held in Romania on November 26, 2000, together with the Presidential election. The Greater Romania Party made big gains, as did the PDSR, which became the ruling party. The formerly governing Romanian Democratic Convention lost all its seats and was shortly...
to the Senate, being re-elected
Romanian legislative election, 2004
The Romanian legislative election of 2004 was held on 28 November 2004. 137 seats in the Senate of Romania and 314 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were up for election.The 2004 legislative election was held simultaneously with the presidential election...
in 2004. In 2006, she was the subject of controversy when cameras caught her niece in her Senate chair with a voting card in her hand, although Nicolai stated her niece did not actually cast a vote. The following year, she became a vice president both of her party and of the Senate; she was the first woman to preside over a session of that chamber. While in the Senate, she served on the defence, anti-corruption, equal opportunity, and judiciary committees, including as president of the last from March 2008. During Tăriceanu's time in office from 2004, her name was floated for the Justice, Interior and Defence portfolios, but she was only offered the Labour Ministry when his second cabinet was formed, a nomination she declined.
Nomination as Justice Minister
In December 2007, following the resignation of Tudor ChiuariuTudor Chiuariu
Tudor-Alexandru Chiuariu is a Romanian lawyer and politician. A member of the National Liberal Party , he served as Justice Minister in the Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu cabinet from April to December 2007, and has represented Bacău County in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies since December 2008...
, she was nominated as Justice Minister by Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
Calin Popescu-Tariceanu
Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian politician. He was the Prime Minister of Romania between 29 December 2004 and 22 December 2008...
; the latter was initially said to have had misgivings about her connections with the secret services and her Communist-era
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
judgeship, but went ahead after public pressure from party colleagues and a near-unanimous vote of approval from the PNL political bureau. Upon being nominated, she vowed to increase the independence of the judiciary and improve its image, to push a new penal code through Parliament (the last one dating to 1969), and to fight corruption. The following month, a series of events ultimately derailed her nomination. President
President of Romania
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...
Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...
began by asking Tăriceanu to withdraw Nicolai, claiming the negative image she had acquired as senator, in particular through the affair involving her niece, would not be conducive to increased public trust in the judiciary. The prime minister responded that, as no legal argument for barring her from the position had been raised, the president had no power to veto the appointment.
Băsescu then declared he would never name Nicolai as Justice Minister, and his office released documents relating to two procedural errors it said she had committed while a prosecutor in Olteniţa. (This came after Tăriceanu refused several telephone calls from Băsescu, and the entire affair formed part of a larger power struggle between the two.) The first referred to a 1987 case where she drew up an indictment and an innocent person was held under arrest for eighteen days as a result—this individual had the same name as the one being sought by the authorities (wanted for wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
theft), but upon realising this, Clinci altered his arrest warrant to match the other man's information rather than reveal the mistake. In a 1991 case (following the 1989 fall of the Communist regime
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
), she represented a foreign citizen in an adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
case, despite her status as prosecutor, and then claimed not to know that the law forbade this; she left her position a month later. Nicolai in turn produced a document indicating the individual in the 1987 case did not spend any time in prison (and calling Băsescu's version of events an "insolent lie"), and said she appeared in the adoption case as a private individual, not a prosecutor, and did not violate the law. Nicolai further opined that the document release was reminiscent of the methods of the Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
secret police; the PNL's UDMR
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, is the main political organisation representing the ethnic Hungarians of Romania....
government partners also weighed in on the prime minister's side, as did the opposition PSD
Social Democratic Party (Romania)
The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. It was formed in 1992, after the post-communist National Salvation Front broke apart. It adopted its present name after a merger with a minor social-democratic party in 2001. Since its formation, it has always...
. Others too viewed the document release as "questionable", with several lawyers stressing the confidential nature of the files.
Later, Băsescu asked Tăriceanu to name an interim minister until a permanent officeholder could be found; Defence Minister Teodor Meleşcanu
Teodor Melescanu
Teodor Viorel Meleşcanu is a Romanian politician, diplomat and jurist. Currently serving as senator for the National Liberal Party , he was Minister of Defense between 2007 and 2008, and Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1992 and 1996...
assumed that role. Băsescu and Tăriceanu then held an inconclusive meeting about the Justice portfolio; afterwards, the latter took the case to the Constitutional Court
Constitutional Court of Romania
The Constitutional Court of Romania is the institution which rules on whether the laws, decrees or other bills enacted by Romanian authorities are in conformity with the Constitution....
, reiterating his claim that Băsescu lacked the authority to stop the appointment. In early February 2008, the court ruled that Băsescu could legally reject the prime minister's nominee for a vacant ministerial position once, and that Tăriceanu was obliged to choose someone else for the position. By the end of the month, the two had agreed on a new minister, and Cătălin Predoiu
Catalin Predoiu
Cătălin Marian Predoiu , is a Romanian lawyer. He has been the Minister of Justice of Romania since 29 February 2008....
took office.
Subsequent career
At the 2008 electionRomanian legislative election, 2008
Legislative elections were held in Romania on November 30, 2008. The Democratic Liberal Party won most seats in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, although the alliance headed by the Social Democratic Party won a fractionally higher vote share.-Electoral System:President Traian Băsescu...
, Nicolai was defeated in her bid for a third Senate term: she finished first in her constituency but failed to obtain a seat under the mixed member proportional representation
Mixed member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...
system introduced at that election. She was re-elected as a PNL vice president at a party congress in March 2009, and at the same time supported Crin Antonescu
Crin Antonescu
George-Crin-Laurenţiu Antonescu is a Romanian politician, currently serving as President of the National Liberal Party . He was a candidate for the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2009. He is a member of the Senate, his election having taken place during the 2008 legislative election...
's successful bid to become party president. In what some saw as a quid pro quo, she was placed first on the party's lists at the June 2009 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 2009 (Romania)
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Romania is the election of the delegation from Romania to the European Parliament in 2009.-Candidates and elected MEPs:Among those expected to take up seats are :...
, where she won a seat. There, she sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Foreign Affairs (EU)
The Committee on Foreign Affairs , previously called Political Affairs, is a committee of the European Parliament...
, where she is vice president of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence
Subcommittee on Security and Defence
The Subcommittee on Security and Defence is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. It concerns Defence, and Security....
.