Romania has faced early questions<\/a> on its preparedness \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 to take the wheel on EU policymaking on the Council side. To prove the doubters wrong, it will have to give a decisive push to a few key legislative files still waiting for the white smoke to come out of interinstitutional negotiations before the European election. They range from rules on food transparency to efforts to regulate e-commerce.<\/p>\n Here are 19 key Romanians you need to know in Brussels.<\/p>\n Luminita Odobescu | European Union<\/p>\n The Romanian ambassador is well aware of the difficulties ahead. \u201cWe will face a lot of challenges,\u201d Odobescu told POLITICO<\/a> ahead of the start of Bucharests presidency. \u201cThe legislative window is quite limited, while we have a lot of important files on the table.\u201d She vowed that the Romanian presidency will be \u201cready and committed\u201d to starting work on the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU. A career diplomat with expertise in energy, economic and monetary union, taxation and trade \u2014 she led negotiations on these issues during her countrys accession talks \u2014 Odobescu has had a long experience in Brussels. In her current position, she has improved the Romanian representations communications efforts and opened it up for events. A Francophile, she is a driving force behind a group of French-speaking ambassadors<\/a> in Brussels that works to promote the French language and multilingualism in EU institutions.<\/p>\n Corina Cretu | Miguel A. Lopes\/EPA<\/p>\n Cre\u021bu is the European commissioner for regional policy, which makes her highly influential in countries that are net recipients of EU development funds, including Romania. She is a member of Romanias ruling Social Democratic Party, or PSD, and, having served as both vice president of the European Parliament and an MEP, she is exceptionally well-connected in Brussels. She will likely play an important backstage role in Romanias EU presidency. Cre\u021bu is also part of the old guard of PSD leaders and very much at odds with her partys current leadership, embodied by the controversial Liviu Dragnea<\/a>, president of the Romanian chamber of deputies. Her sharp and frequent criticism of the PSD governments inability to make use of EU funds is regularly picked up by opposition-leaning media in Romania.<\/p>\n In 2015, a POLITICO investigation<\/a> found that nearly half of her closest staff had resigned during her first year in office and raised concerns about a light work schedule as well as a tendency to combine official trips with leisure travel and to ask staff to perform personal tasks. Cre\u021bu defended her record,<\/a> saying she had maintained a busy public schedule and her work was based on honesty and integrity.<\/p>\n During the countrys EU presidency, Cre\u021bu is expected to make a useful ally for President Klaus Iohannis, a former liberal leader who also fiercely opposes Dragnea.<\/p>\n Achim Irimescu | Leszek Szymanski\/EPA<\/p>\n A former agriculture minister, Irimescu is the point man for agriculture policy under the Romanian presidency. One of his teams key tasks will be to wrap up the reform of the EUs General Food Law<\/a> \u2014 legislation on how companies publish information about their products. The 60-year-old will also likely have to contend with pressure from European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan<\/a> to make progress on his proposal to overhaul the Common Agricultural Policy. Irimescu has headed Romanias agriculture team at its permanent representation to the EU since 2017. He also serves as the countrys spokesperson for the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), one of the most influential agricultural bodies in the Council of the EU.<\/p>\n The Romanian presidency will have the difficult task of bringing the digital single market to the finish line, when only the most controversial files are left on the negotiating table. For example, the fate of the e-privacy regulation will fall on the shoulders of telecoms and cybersecurity attach\u00e9 Ramona Ni\u021b\u0103<\/strong>. The privacy reform, put forward by the European Commission to protect the confidentiality of electronic communications, has been stuck in the Council of the EU for two years. Also at the permanent representation of Romania to the EU, Lucian-Petru Dobrogeanu<\/strong> is in charge of data protection and retention, Corina Panaitopol<\/strong> of copyright and Karina Stan<\/strong> of the platform-to-business regulation. The copyright reform and the platform-to-business proposal \u2014 a regulation aimed at enhancing transparency in the relations between platforms such as Amazon and Google and their business partners \u2014 are both at interinstitutional negotiations stage, meaning they are the most likely to close under the Romanian presidency.<\/p>\n Manescu has spent a decade transforming how the EU communicates with Europeans. First, Manescu led the European Councils social media efforts, and since 2012 shes been in charge of the same thing at the European Commission, building up more than 1 million followers on Twitter alone. While sometimes self-congratulatory and stiff, the EUs online comms has greatly improved under Manescu, in particular by riding the global video wave, engaging in dialogue instead of lectures, and tapping into the existing interests of citizens instead of merely pumping out pro-EU propaganda. As a secondee to the Romanian presidency, Manescus task will be to highlight the technical work of the Romanian government, and promote the countrys brand in parallel, seeking to steer clear of the countrys toxic domestic politics and corruption.<\/p>\n Siegfried Muresan | European Union<\/p>\n Mure\u015fan is an economist and, since 2015, spokesperson of the center-right European Peoples Party. As a member of the European Parliament<\/a>, Mure\u015fan is also vice chair of the Parliaments budgets committee, a key role as the bloc seeks to finalize its next seven-year budget running from 2021-2027. Mure\u015fan has strong links to Germany, having worked as adviser to the chair of the German Bundestags European affairs committee.<\/p>\n Photo by Ana Gradinaru<\/p>\n As Facebooks policy communication manager, Gradinaru is part of the companys first line of defense in Brussels. Once an adviser to then-European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, Gradinaru has been in crisis communication mode for the past year, trying to calm lawmakers outrage over privacy scandals, terrorist content and a fake news debacle. She was on Mark Zuckerbergs detail when the Facebook chief executive officer visited the European Parliament. Gradinaru is a dual national of France and Romania and got into EU policy as a trainee in the office of Kroes, the Dutch commissioner who crafted much of the initial plans for the European digital single market, and was part of the Commissions campaign to end mobile roaming charges in Europe.<\/p>\n Photo by Valentina Pop<\/p>\n One of the leading Romanian journalists in Brussels, Pop<\/a> is a stalwart of the press corps, having reported for more than a decade from the EUs de facto capital. Pops 13 years of EU reporting include seven years at EU Observer before she moved to the Wall Street Journal in 2015. Her other assignments include two years as the Economists Romania correspondent.<\/p>\n Marian-Jean Marinescu | European Union<\/p>\n EPP MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu plays an outsized role in most aviation-related legislation in Brussels. An aerospace engineer by training, Marinescu was among the first batch of MEPs Romania sent to Brussels after it joined the EU in 2007. Marinescu has carved out a role for himself in some of the more technical pieces of legislation doing the rounds, including drone safety, airspace reform and technological innovation. These days Marinescu is busy with the 2021-2027 EU budget, wrangling the Commission to put more money in infrastructure and research funds like the Connecting Europe Facility and the European Fund for Strategic Investments.<\/p>\n Cristian-Silviu Bu\u0219oi | European Union<\/p>\n Staicu is the health attach\u00e9 at the permanent representation and will be in charge of getting EU countries to make progress on some entrenched files, such as joint clinical assessments on the value of medicines. He has more than eight years of experience in Brussels and previously served as an adviser to the health ministry in Bucharest. In the European Parliament, Staicu might want to keep an eye on a fellow Romanian, Cristian-Silviu Bu\u0219oi, who is also involved in some key health files. A physician by training, Bu\u0219oi has led opinions on health funding and health technology assessment. He is a member of Romanias National Liberals, an opposition party back home that comes under the European Peoples Party umbrella. Bu\u0219oi was first elected to the European Parliament in 2007.<\/p>\n Adina-Ioana V\u0103lean | European Union<\/p>\n V\u0103lean has been the chair of the European Parliaments Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee since January 2017, steering work on contentious issues such as climate policy, health care and hazardous chemicals. Like Bu\u0219oi, Valean is a member of the National Liberal Party and the EPP group. Prior to her election as chairwoman of ENVI, V\u0103lean served as a vice president of the European Parliament.<\/p>\n Boiangiu, a career diplomat, is Romanias deputy ambassador at its mission to the EU. He will be in charge of steering the Councils work on all policies related to energy, climate, transport, agriculture and competitiveness. Prior to taking on his role in Brussels in April 2016, Boiangiu served as Romanias ambassador to Slovenia. Before that, he was in charge of managing Romanias relations with the United Nations within the foreign ministry.<\/p>\n Doru Frantescu | Photo by VoteWatch Europe<\/p>\nLumini\u0163a Odobescu<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nCorina Cre\u0163u<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nAchim Irimescu<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nThe digital attach\u00e9s<\/h3>\n
Dana Manescu<\/h3>\n
Siegfried Mure\u015fan<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nAna Gradinaru<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nValentina Pop<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nMarian-Jean Marinescu<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n\u0218tefan Staicu and Cristian-Silviu Bu\u0219oi
<\/h3>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20181113_EP-079352D__PST_141-714x505.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\nAdina-Ioana V\u0103lean<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nCosmin Boiangiu<\/h3>\n
Doru Frantescu<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n