Daniel Dăianu

Daniel Dăianu
Minister of Finance
In office 5 December 1997 – 23 September 1998
Prime Minister	Victor Ciorbea Radu Vasile
Preceded by	Mircea Ciumara
Succeeded by	Decebal Traian Remeș
Member of the European Parliament forRomania
In office 10 December 2007 – 13 July 2009
Personal details
Born	(1952-08-30)30 August 1952 Bucharest,Romania
Political party	National Liberal Party(PNL)
Alma mater	Academy of Economic Studies(ASE)
Occupation	Economist, professor

Daniel Dăianu(born 30 August 1952) is a Romanian economist, professor and politician.

Early life

He was born inBucharest,Romaniain a family of high-rankingSecuritateofficers.Up to 9th grade he studied at High School nr. 35, after which he switched to theIon Luca Caragiale High School,where he attended a special math classfrom 1968 to 1971. In 1975, he obtained aMaster of Economicsfrom theAcademy of Economic Studies(ASE) in Bucharest and, in 1988, aPh.D.in Economics from the same institution. He held a post-doctoral research position atHarvard University's Russian Research Center, from 1990 to 1991 and attendedHarvard Business School's six-week Advanced Management Program in 1994.

DuringNicolae Ceaușescu's communist regime, Dăianu worked for the Securitate's Foreign Intelligence Unit (DIE),between 1976 and September 1978. He left DIE in 1978, of his own volition and he became known, in the following decade, for his writings against Ceaușescu's economic policy, which were highlighted onRadio Free Europe(RFE) at the time. Between 1979 and 1990, he was a researcher at the Economic Socialist Institute. In September 2007, the National Council for Analyzing the State Security Department Files (CNSAS) decided that Dăianu had worked for the External Intelligence Unit solely on economic issues.

Public service career

Dăianu withDacian CioloșandPetre Romanin 2019

Between 1992 and 1997, Dăianu was the Chief Economist of the National Bank of Romania. He was theFinance Minister of Romaniabetween December 5, 1997, and September 23, 1998, in the governments ofVictor CiorbeaandRadu Vasile.He was dismissed because he refused to endorse a controversial deal withBell Helicopter Textronto purchase 96AH-1RO Draculaattack helicopters (a variant ofAH-1 Cobra), in order to help modernize the armed forces. Dăianu considered that terms of the contract were disadvantageous for the Romanian industry and that the deal was too costly for the Romanian budget at that time.

In August 2005, he became President of the Supervision Board ofBanca Comercială Română,a position previously held bySebastian VlădescuandFlorin Georgescu,among others. He resigned this post in December 2007, in order to avoid any conflict of interest with his duties as a member of the European Parliament. During 2012–13 he was a member of the Board ofCEC Bank.Dăianu was also the President of the European Association for Comparative Economic Studies (EACES), between 2002 and 2004.

He was a member of theEuropean Parliamentbetween 2007 and 2009, when he represented theNational Liberal Party(PNL). He was co-rapporteur of the report "Lamfalussy follow-up: Future Structure of Supervision", for the European Parliament. On May 22, 2008, Dăianu, together with three former Presidents of the European Commission, nine former Prime Ministers of EU member states, and six former Finance/Economy Ministers, co-signed an article with title "Financial Markets Cannot Govern Us" in "Le Monde",in which they anticipated the extent of the economic crisis and talked about its causes. In October 2008, Dăianu took position against European banks that receive state aids to get out of the crisis, yet damage emerging European economies through speculation against national currencies.

During the presidential elections of 2009, he was touted as one of possible prime ministers. In 2010, Dăianu was invited to be a fellow of theWarsaw-based Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE). Between 2014 - 2019, he was a member of the Board of theNational Bank of Romania.Between April 2013 and June 2014, he was first deputy president of the Romanian Financial Supervision Authority. He is the president of the Romanian Fiscal Council since 2019. Daniel Dăianu is a member of the High Level Group on Own Resources of the European Union, which is headed byMario Monti.Dăianu is also a member of the European Council for Foreign Relations, since 2012.

Academic career

Dăianu is a professor of public finance at theNational University of Political Studies and Public Administrationin Bucharest. During different periods, he held research positions at theWoodrow Wilson International Center for ScholarsinWashington, D.C.,theNATO Defense CollegeinRome,theInternational Monetary Fund,and theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentinParis.Between 1999 and 2004, he was a professor at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles,and at theUniversity of Bologna.

Dăianu was electedcorresponding memberof theRomanian Academyin 2001, and became titular member in 2013. In 2023, he was elected a member of theAcademia Europaea.He has written several books and his columns have appeared inZiarul Financiar,Piața Financiară,Bursa,Southeast European Times,European Voice,Les Echos,Europe's World,andWorld Commerce Review.

He speaks Romanian (mother tongue), English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Selected writings

• Funcționarea economiei și echilibrul extern(Editura Academiei Române, 1992),ISBN973-27-0289-3
• Economic vitality and viability: a dual challenge for European Security.Frankfurt am Main:Peter Lang.June 1996.ISBN0-8204-3184-2.OCLC34771975.
• Transformation of Economy As a Real Process: An Insider's Perspective(Ashgate Publishing,April 1999),ISBN1-84014-475-0
• Balkan reconstruction,by Daniel Dăianu and Thanos Veremes (Frank Cass,January 2001)ISBN0-7146-5148-6,ISBN0-7146-8172-5
• Ethical Boundaries of Capitalism,by Daniel Dăianu and Radu Vrânceanu (Ashgate Publishing, June 2005),ISBN0-7546-4395-6
• Frontierele etice ale capitalismului,translated into Romanian by Dorin Nistor, Alina Pelea, Marius Gulei (Polirom,2006)ISBN973-46-0085-0
• Pariul României. Economia noastră: reformă și integrare,(Bucharest, Compania, 2006),ISBN973-8119-95-2
• Ce vom fi în Uniune,(Iași, Polirom, 2006),ISBN973-46-0269-1
• South East Europe and The World We Live In(Bucharest, The Romanian Diplomatic Institute, 2008),ISBN978-973-27-1628-1
• The Macroeconomics of EU Integration. The Case of Romania(Bucharest, Rosetti Educational, 2008),ISBN978-973-7881-34-2
• Which Way Goes Capitalism?(Budapest/New York,Central European University Press,May 2009),ISBN978-963-9776-47-0
• Lupta cu criza financiară. Eforturile unui membru român al PE / Combating the Financial Crisis. A Romanian MEPs Struggle,Bucharest, Rosetti Educațional, 2009,ISBN978-973-7881-52-6
• Co-author ofWhither Economic Growth in Central and Eastern Europe,Bruegel Blueprint Series, Brussels, 2010,ISBN978-90-78910-17-6
• EU Economic Governance Reform: Are We at a Turning Point?,RCEP Policy Brief No.17, 2010
• Co-edited volume "The Crisis of the Eurozone. The Future of Europe",Palgrave Macmillan,2014 (Dăianu, Basevi, D'Adda, and Kumar)
• Băncile centrale, criză și post-criză,Polirom,2018
• Emerging Europe and the Great Recession,Cambridge Scholars Publishing,UK, 2018
• Economia și pandemia. Ce urmează?, Polirom, 2021