Eugen Tomac

Eugen Tomac
File:Eugen Tomac.jpg
Member of the European Parliament for Romania
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 July 2019
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office 2012
Leader of the People's Movement Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 June 2018
Preceded by	Traian Băsescu
Personal details
Born	(1981-06-21) 21 June 1981 Izmail, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR
Alma mater	University of Bucharest

Eugen Tomac is a Romanian politician, historian and journalist currently serving his second term as Deputy in the Chamber of Deputies Romanian Parliament from 2012, and is the President of the People's Movement Party since June 2018.

Early life

Tomac was born in Oziornoe, Ukraine, a city in the south of Basarabia, formerly Ismail County and came to Romania at the age of 17, through a scholarship program offered by the Romanian Government to Romanians living abroad.

Active in politics from early adulthood, Tomac was president of the League for Romanian Youth Abroad from 2000-2004 and then coordinator of youth national projects at the Democratic Education Center. From 2004–2006, Tomac was coordinator of the “News to Know” project, implemented with the support of the United States Department of State in the disadvantaged rural areas of Romania. He also worked as editor at the “Ziua” and “Confluențe” newspapers, and at the Romanian Public Radio and Television.

Studies

Eugen Tomac graduated from the History Faculty at the University of Bucharest in 2003 with the thesis “Basarabia, a Romanian Province on the Outskirts of the USSR”. He earned his master's degree in 2004 from the same school, with the thesis paper “Mechanisms of Denationalization in the USSR”.

Professional career

During his university years, Tomac was editor at the “Magazin Istoric,” a history journal, where he published several studies about Basarabia and Romanians abroad. Later, he taught history at the Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Institute for Romanians Abroad (within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), where he was once a student and where Romanians from Albania, Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and the Ukraine study.

In 2006, at the age of 25, Tomac joined the Presidential Administration as an Expert, responsible for relations with Romanians Everywhere. In 2009, he was appointed Secretary of State for Romanians Abroad, within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the formal establishment of the Department for Romanians Abroad under the Prime Minister's coordination, Eugen Tomac was appointed Secretary of State for the Boc and Ungureanu governments, and under his leadership, he actively contributed to the simplification of the process for the regaining of Romanian citizenship for Romanians from the Republic of Moldova. Tomac also decided on the donation of over one million Romanian books for libraries and schools in the Republic of Moldova, and on the re-publishing of almost half a million Romanian History manuals for educational institutions in the Republic of Moldova.

With the fall of the Ungureanu government, Tomac resigned as Secretary of State on May 11, 2012. A week after his resignation, Eugen Tomac was appointed State Counselor to the Department of International Relations and European Policy of the Presidential Administration.

Political activity

Eugen Tomac started his political formal political career as a member of the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP). As first Vice-Chair of the Romanians Abroad LDP organization, he was proposed to run the campaign for the Parliamentary elections in 2008, applying for the seat of Deputy, representing the Romanians from Eastern Europe and Asia. Although he had the most votes, due to the uninominal voting protocol, he did not win. During the next Parliamentary elections, he ran again and won the seat in the Parliament in the same County (Eastern Europe and Asia) with the highest score among his party colleagues, 78.7% of the votes. He was subsequently appointed Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for the Romanian Communities Abroad. Shortly after he was elected, in May 2013, he opened the first parliamentary office in the capital of the Republic of Moldova, Chișinău, for helping Romanians in the Republic of Moldova in order to solve the problems the Romanian institutions are competent for. As deputy, he drafted and initiated several law projects for supporting the Romanians living abroad and improving relations with the Republic of Moldova.

In July 2013, he resigned from the LDP and founded a new party, the Popular Movement Party, supported by Romania's former President Traian Băsescu. Băsescu was President of the Party and Eugen Tomac Executive President until June 2018 when Tomac was elected party president. In June 2016, he ran the Bucharest's District 1 City hall campaign. At the end of the same year, he was elected for the second time in the Romanian Parliament, Chamber of Deputies, representing Romanians from Bucharest. Currently, he is the leader of the Parliamentary Group of the People Movement Party from the Chamber of Deputies.

Published papers

Eugen Tomac coordinated the “Focus on Romanians” study, a report on the situation of Romanians living abroad and revealing major aspects of discrimination. The main chapters addressed in this first public report published in Romania after 1989 present the current situation of the education and mass-media in Romanian language in these communities (February 2005).

Tomac also coordinated the Romanian near us, LEX collection “Romanian communities – rights and universal norms,” a legal guide that includes universal and European laws on the protection of minorities and the fight against ethnic discrimination (December 2004).

Specializations

• 2007: Romanian Institute of Economic and Social Research and Surveys, Human Resources Management
• 2007: International Visitor Leadership Program 2006, "NGO Management", Washington, Non-Governmental Organizations Management
• 2003: The Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies, European and Euro-Atlantic Studies
• 1999: The Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Institute for Romanians Abroad

Honors

• 2011: Vocaţia Spiritului Balcanic Award, Balcanii şi Europa Magazine.
• 2010: "Sfântul Gheorghe, Purtătorul de Biruinţă" Order of the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church
• 2009: Dimitrie Cantemir Commemorative Medal, Magazin Istoric Cultural Foundation