Emil Constantinescu

Country:

Romania

WAAS Designation:

Fellow

Primary Position & Institution:

President, Academy of Cultural Diplomacy, Berlin

Short Bio:

Emil Constantinescu is currently professor at the Bucharest University Doctoral School and was Romanian President from 1996 to 2000. From 1966, he was assistant, lecturer, at the Faculty of Geology at the University of Bucharest. He is author of 12 specialty books. He published over 60 studies in the most important scientific magazines from Romania and abroad. Within his civic activities, he engages in the effort to set up the democracy in Romania, to defend human fundamental rights and freedom, and in building the civil society. Proposed by the University Solidarity and the Civic Alliance, as unique candidate of the RDC for the presidential elections in 1992. After this first political experience, the Democratic Convention elected him as its president. Their party won in 1996 the local and parliamentary elections and Emil Constantinescu was elected through direct vote President of Romania on a four-year term. During his presidential mandate (1996-2000) Romania has engaged in a large-scale process of reform in economy, justice and administration. He opened the crucial way for Romania towards NATO and EU. Later, Emil Constantinescu resumed his academic career and made further steps to consolidate the nongovernmental organizations role. He launched the XXI European Generation Forum and founded the Romanian Academic Forum. In 2008 founded the New Democracies Forum. He is awarded several prizes, among others the Prize of Romanian Academy; Palmas Academicas; Golden and Honorific medals from Comenius University in Bratislava. He was president of the international commission for supervising the parliamentary elections (2001) and presidential elections (2007) in Senegal and of the parliamentary elections in Tunisia (2011). He graduated in judicial studies from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest and is assigned as probationer judge at Pitesti Local Court. The political climate forced him to attend the courses of the Geology. He became a doctor in Geology from the University of Bucharest; Doctor ès Sciences from the Duke University, USA.