| Public Engagement |
The opportunity I had of working in public institutions, on legislation and international relations came with build-up of capabilities: managing complex stakeholders, delivering under political pressure, and translating policy into operational reality.
Convictions are only worth something
when you act on them — consistently, over time.
Eight years of public engagement built around three convictions that were present from the beginning and remain at the centre of the work today.
Democracy & freedom. Individual empowerment. Progress through structure, technology and people.
Public engagement is not a role. It is a sustained commitment to the things you believe matter — pursued through legislation, international institutions, civic campaigns, and direct interaction with people in their communities. What follows is not a list of activities. It is the record of three convictions in action.
First conviction
Democracy & freedom —
inseparable, and never guaranteed.
Freedom depends on democracy. When democratic institutions weaken — when elections are manipulated, courts are captured, or emergency ordinances are used to protect the powerful — individual freedom shrinks first for the most vulnerable, then for everyone. This conviction has driven the most sustained legislative effort of the mandate: making it easier for citizens to vote, harder to steal or suppress that vote, and ensuring that the rules of the democratic game are fair and transparent.
Europe is the framework within which this is possible. Belonging to it is not a technical arrangement — it is a guarantee of the freedoms that took decades to build.
441→835
Voting sections abroad
#StopCoziLaVot — turning frustration into legislation
After the disorganized 2019 European Parliament elections left thousands of Romanians abroad unable to vote after hours in line, a campaign was launched across 30+ European cities. Citizen feedback was transmitted to parliament’s special electoral commission — resulting in a solid legislative package. Polling sections abroad nearly doubled and close to one million diaspora Romanians voted in excellent conditions at the presidential elections.
8
Years of electoral reform
A sustained legislative programme — not a single initiative
Postal voting extended to presidential elections; polling hours extended until midnight if queues remain; redefinition of the polling perimeter; electronic voter lists; lower electoral thresholds; mayoral elections in two rounds; electronic voting proposals; transparent party financing; fair diaspora representation in parliament. Most blocked by the governing majority — but tabled, argued, and reintroduced at every opportunity.
OUG 13 · 2017
Defending the rule of law from the floor of parliament
When the governing coalition attempted to decriminalize corruption offences by emergency ordinance, the response was immediate and vocal — from the Senate floor, in public statements, and in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets. The effort contributed to the Constitutional Court referral that ultimately forced the government’s hand.
Republic of Moldova
Parliamentary solidarity with Romania’s closest neighbour
Initiating the joint parliamentary declaration in support of the Maia Sandu government — pushing through resistance from the foreign minister of the time. Later, leading the USR declaration condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and supporting Moldova’s and Ukraine’s European path, bringing the Romanian parliament in line with its EU counterparts.
Special pensions · justice reform
Consistent positions on institutional integrity
Sustained opposition to special pensions for politicians and magistrates — including personal renunciation of the parliamentary special pension. Active resistance to attempts to weaken the justice system. Consistent votes against politically motivated appointments to key institutions. Equal citizens require equal rules.
Election observation missions — AP OSCE
Eight years of electoral work aimed at a single objective: a modern, representative, digitized system where Romanians wherever they are can register and vote, where the result reflects the actual will of citizens, and where the rules do not change to serve those already in power. Democracy without accessible voting is freedom without a guarantee.
Second conviction
Individual empowerment —
the capacity to build a life should not depend on where you start.
Freedom is not only political. It is the freedom to work where you choose and have your rights respected. The freedom to rebuild after a setback without the system working against you. The freedom to participate in the civic life of the community where you live. Liberal conviction means taking these freedoms seriously at the individual level — not as principles to be stated, but as conditions to be created.
Individual empowerment is not an abstract idea. It means protecting mobile workers whose rights are routinely ignored. It means helping trafficking victims rebuild their lives. It means volunteering alongside entrepreneurs in developing economies and people starting over after serious setbacks. Structure, information, and access to rights change individual lives — and that change is what freedom looks like in practice.
Mobile workers · EU
Romania has the most mobile workers in the EU — their rights require active defence
Eight years of sustained engagement: legislative amendments introducing medical insurance and clearer contracts for seasonal workers; stricter rules for recruitment agencies; collaboration with German, Austrian and Dutch parliamentary counterparts to strengthen workplace inspections and improve living conditions. The number of labour attachés supporting Romanians abroad increased from 11 in 2021 to 17 by mandate’s end.
Human trafficking victims · Law 136/2023
A law adopted — giving victims back their identity and their rights
Initiating the law protecting and supporting trafficking victims: removing criminal sanctions for victims forced into sex work or begging; enabling faster access to identity documents within 15 days; allowing a law firm or NGO address as registered domicile for safety. Adopted unanimously by parliament and promulgated in 2023. Access to identity documents is the first step to accessing everything else — shelter, healthcare, legal support, a chance to rebuild.
Grow Movement · 2013–2016
Volunteer business development advisor — entrepreneurs in developing economies
Three years supporting entrepreneurs in developing economies through Grow Movement — pairing volunteer advisors with small business owners who lack access to the knowledge and networks that others take for granted. The conviction: entrepreneurial capacity is not a privilege, it is a skill that can be taught, supported, and multiplied.
Fondation de la 2ème Chance · 2010–2014
Advisor supporting people rebuilding livelihoods after serious setbacks
Nearly five years advising with the Fondation de la 2ème Chance in France — working with people who had experienced serious life setbacks and were rebuilding from very little. A second chance is not charity. It is the recognition that circumstances can overwhelm anyone, and that the right support at the right moment changes trajectories.
Românii au Putere · 2021–2023
Civic empowerment campaign — diaspora Romanians as active citizens
A campaign to encourage diaspora Romanians to participate in local elections in their countries of residence — not just as voters, but as candidates, council members, and civic actors. Direct support for Romanians running for local office in the UK, Germany, Italy, and France. Seventeen diaspora Romanians stood for election in Romania’s 2020 local elections as a direct result.
→ Political power, like economic opportunity, should not depend on where you happen to be.
Direct casework · 750+ cases
Individual citizens, individual problems — resolved one by one
Over 750 cases taken on directly across two mandates: consular access, labour disputes, social protection, administrative problems, pension files, identity documents. Each one a reminder that the gap between rights on paper and rights in practice is where real empowerment work happens.
Third conviction
Progress through
structure, technology, and people.
Organizations — public or private, political or institutional — deliver on their potential only when they are well structured, use technology intelligently, and develop the people within them. This conviction runs through the corporate career, the political mandate, and the current advisory work. In public engagement it has translated into concrete legislative achievements and a European initiative still being built.
Law 13/2024
Digital consular services — adopted unanimously
Initiating, building cross-ministry support for, and shepherding through parliament a law enabling over 5 million diaspora Romanians to access consular services online — without travelling hundreds of kilometres to a consulate. Adopted unanimously. Promulgated January 2024. First online services live May 2024: criminal record certificates, driving licence verification, documents required by host-country authorities.
Law 46/2021
The Feedback Law — citizen voice integrated into consular evaluation
The “Simplu ca Afară” consultation engaged diaspora Romanians in identifying administrative problems and sharing examples from their countries of residence — producing a mandatory system for collecting and integrating citizen feedback into consular evaluation. The first Romanian parliamentary initiative of its kind. Now operational in consulates including London.
AP OSCE · 2022
Special Representative for the Digital Agenda
Six months monitoring digital transformation across OSCE member states, facilitating parliamentary dialogue, and bringing good practices from the UK, Denmark, and Cyprus to countries earlier in the digital journey. Meetings with Finnish, Danish, and British digital governance authorities. Report presented to the annual session in Birmingham.
As Romanian Parliament representative, contributed to the working group on a stronger economy — securing the inclusion of fair labour mobility for EU mobile workers in the conference’s final report, and advocating for innovation and research as core economic competitiveness levers.
The gap between policy ambition and real-world impact is always organizational. It is filled — or not — by the quality of decisions, the clarity of ownership, and the discipline of execution. That conviction runs through the corporate career, the parliamentary mandate, the advisory work, and the European initiative now being built.
The current expression of conviction 03
A European initiative on management quality as economic infrastructure.
The European Management Capabilities Initiative builds the case — and the coalition — for recognizing management quality as a structural determinant of European competitiveness. It brings together three decades of organizational experience, the institutional reach of the parliamentary mandate, and the conviction that execution is where European ambition succeeds or fails.
Questions about the public engagement work,
or interested in joining the European initiative?