REPORT on the nomination of Lucian Romașcanu as a Member of the Court of Auditors
24.3.2025 - (C10‑0010/2025 – 2025/0801(NLE))
Committee on Budgetary Control
Rapporteur: Tomáš Zdechovský
PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on the nomination of Lucian Romașcanu as a Member of the Court of Auditors
(C10‑0010/2025 – 2025/0801(NLE))
(Consultation)
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Article 286(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Council consulted Parliament (C10‑0010/2025),
– having regard to Rule 133 of its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A10-0039/2025),
A. whereas, by letter of 12 February 2025, the Council consulted Parliament on the nomination of Lucian Romașcanu as a Member of the Court of Auditors;
B. whereas Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control then proceeded to evaluate Lucian Romașcanu’s credentials, in particular in view of the requirements laid down in Article 286(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; whereas in carrying out that evaluation, the committee received a curriculum vitae from Lucian Romașcanu, as well as the replies to the written questionnaire that he had been sent;
C. whereas the committee subsequently held a hearing with Lucian Romașcanu on 18 March 2025, at which he made an opening statement and then answered questions put by the members of the committee;
1. Delivers a favourable opinion on the Council’s nomination of Lucian Romașcanu as a Member of the Court of Auditors;
2. Instructs its President to forward this decision to the Council and, for information, the Court of Auditors, the other institutions of the European Union and the audit institutions of the Member States.
ANNEX 1: CURRICULUM VITÆ OF LUCIAN ROMAȘCANU
ABOUT ME
Married, two children
Politician with top parliamentary and governmental experience with a wealth of prior experience in the private sector.
Solid experience in working with public and European funds in the public positions held, minister, senator or head of a higher administrative territorial unit.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
[ 2000 – 2002 ] Executive MBA
University Of Washington, Seattle / ASEBUSS BucharestCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania |
[ 1986 – 1991 ] BSc
Academy Of Economic StudiesCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania |
WORK EXPERIENCE
[ 28/10/2024 – Current ] President
Buzău County CouncilCity: Buzău | Country: Romania
• uninominal elected position
• administrative coordination of Buzău county, 404 000 inhabitants and 87 administrative territorial units
• yearly budget – over EUR 100 million
[ 21/12/2016 – 27/10/2024 ] Senator
The Senate of RomaniaCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
Various positions in the parliament of Romania:
• Chair, Culture and Media Committee
• President, Romanian parliament delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
• Leader, Social-Democratic Party senators
[ 11/2021 – 06/2023 ] Minister Of Culture
Government of RomaniaCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• yearly budget - over EUR 300 million
[ 06/2017 – 01/2018 ] Minister Of Culture
Government of RomaniaCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• yearly budget – over EUR 270 million
[ 2015 – 2016 ] Management Advisor to the President of the Board
Romanian National TelevisionCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• 100 % state owned
• 5 TV Channels
• EUR 67 million yearly turnover
• 2 450 employees
[ 2012 – 2015 ] Managing Director
Dogan Media InternationalCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• Turkish capital
• EUR 20 million yearly turnover
• over 400 employees
• 32 % y-o-y revenue growth
[ 2009 – 2012 ] General Manager
Cancan MediaCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• EUR 8 million yearly turnover
• 140 employees
• 12% y-o-y revenue growth
[ 2006 – 2009 ] Managing Director
Ringier RomaniaCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• Swiss capital
• EUR 30 million yearly turnover
• 240 employees
[ 2004 – 2006 ] Managing Director
Best Print ServicesCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• EUR 10 million yearly turnover
• 110 employees
• financing negotiations, investment programme supervising
• ERP design and implementation
• 18 % y-o-y revenue growth
[ 2002 – 2004 ] General Manager
HL Display RomaniaCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• Swedish capital
• start-up
• EUR 1 million yearly turnover
• 5 employees
• Accountable for the Profit and Loss (P&L) statement
• budgeting, revenue and cost control responsibility
[ 1999 – 2002 ] Sales Director
Ringier RomaniaCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• Swiss capital
• sales team coordination (14 people)
• crafting sales strategy, planning action, setting sales objectives
• sales presentations delivered to media agencies, key clients; contract negotiation
[ 1997 – 1999 ] Sales Director
MediaPro HoldingCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• organising and harmonising the sales structures of the different group companies
• crafting sales strategy, planning action, setting sales objectives
• sales presentations delivered to media agencies, key clients; negotiating sales budgets responsibility, in depth reorganisation of the sales structure of 16 different companies
[ 1993 – 1997 ] Country Representative Amorim IrmaosCity: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• start-up
• EUR 4 million yearly turnover
• building the presence on the Romanian market, obtaining and maintaining the leader position (90 % market share)
[ 1991 – 1993 ] Account manager
Vinexport Trading Co.
City: Bucharest | Country: Romania
• coordinating exports to Dutch, Canadian and Israeli markets
• taking part in negotiations, supervising deliveries, preparing export documents.
MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Team leader, good negotiator• good teams coordination
• precise identification and delimitation of competences and hierarchies, multitasking with attention to detail
• analytical but also action and results oriented
• very good communication and presentation skills
• strong negotiation skills with different typologies or cultures
COMMUNICATION AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
Excellent communicator, adaptable and perseverant• excellent interpersonal and communication skills within different environments, coordinating and motivating teams of various sizes
• committed, self-starter, dynamic, perseverant, adaptable, rapidly assimilating new information from various fields
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Mother tongue(s): Romanian
Other language(s):
English
LISTENING C2 READING C2 WRITING C2
SPOKEN PRODUCTION C2 SPOKEN INTERACTION C2
French
LISTENING B2 READING B2 WRITING B1
SPOKEN PRODUCTION B1 SPOKEN INTERACTION B1
Levels: A1 and A2: Basic user; B1 and B2: Independent user; C1 and C2: Proficient user
DIGITAL SKILLS
My Digital SkillsExcellent command of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) | Proficiency of using computer and internet | Enterprise-Resource-Planning-Software (ERP) | Implement change management: from organisational changes to CRMs launch
DRIVING LICENCE
Motorbikes: A
Cars: B
HOBBIES AND INTERESTS
Avid reader, passionate about sports and musicANNEX 2: ANSWERS BY LUCIAN ROMAȘCANU TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Questionnaire for Candidates for Membership of the Court of Auditors
Professional experience
1. Please list your professional experience in public finance be it in budgetary planning, budget implementation or management or budget control or auditing.
A:
• As manager in the private sector
i. I proposed, negotiated, approved and controlled budgets of EUR tens of millions in the different companies I managed.
• As Senator in the Romanian Parliament:
i. I discussed, amended and approved eight of the Romanian yearly budgets with all the activities involved in this laborious process.
ii. I received, analysed, and was involved in amending, approving or rejecting the budgets of the institutions that operate directly under the supervision of the Senate of Romania – Romanian National Television, Romanian National Radio, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Audio Visual Council, among others.
iii. I was involved in top level decisions during major crises, including the pandemic and the energy crisis, where the budgetary impact and control over decisions was a key priority.
• As Minister of Culture
i. I analysed past years’ budgets and drew conclusions on the performance of the previous budgets and implemented corrective measures where necessary.
ii. I drew up the yearly budgets, negotiated them with the Ministry of Finance and presented them in front of the Romanian parliament – the yearly budget of the Ministry of Culture is about EUR 300 million.
iii. I oversaw the execution of the yearly budgets both in terms of performance and legality.
iv. I worked closely with the Romanian Court of Accounts in all aspects related to their activities concerning my ministry.
• As President of Buzau County
i. I analysed the previous years’ budgets to allow me to draw conclusions on the County’s financial performance and subsequently prepared budgetary corrections for the next period.
ii. I drew up the 2025 budget and supervised its approval by the County counsellors – the yearly budget is about EUR 110 million.
2. What have been your most significant achievements in your professional career?
A: Considering the scope of this questionnaire, I would list some of the achievements related to the financial and budgetary fields:
i. In my first mandate as Minister, I was able to increase the budget of the Ministry of Culture by 47 % and oversaw an execution rate of more than 98 % without any adverse opinion from the Romanian Court of Accounts.
ii. As the leader of the group of the Social Democratic Party senators I was a key actor in the negotiation and successful vote of the Romania’s annual budgets in due time.
iii. As member of the Parliament during the COVID-19 crisis I was able, together with my colleagues, to ensure – through the necessary Parliamentary decisions – all the resources that the state needed to fight the pandemic and follow-up the way the resources were allocated and spent.
3. What has been your professional experience of international multicultural and multilinguistic organisations or institutions based outside your home country?
A:
i. In the private sector I worked on top executive positions for multinational companies, where I exposed to different cultures within the organisations I worked for.
ii. As a member of the Romanian parliament and a committee chair, I was constantly involved in activities of parliamentary diplomacy with representatives of different countries and cultures. As the President of the Romanian Parliament delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) I was involved in meetings, discussions and negotiations with representatives from more than 50 member countries.
iii. As a minister I had the opportunity to have a full international agenda with meetings and negotiations with colleagues from different countries and cultures.
4. Have you been granted discharge for the management duties you carried out previously, if such a procedure applies?
A: The duties I carried out previously were not subject to a discharge procedure.
5. Which of your previous professional positions were a result of a political nomination?
A: For the past eight years of my career, I was in the public service following general or local elections and I was appointed twice as Minister of Culture. All positions were held as a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
6. What are the three most important decisions to which you have been party in your professional life?
A: Having a career that spans over decades, there were several important decisions that made the difference, and I am proud of. I will mention three of them, which are relevant for the three main chapters of my career so far, in the private sector, government and parliament:
i. One of my important decisions I made during my years as manager in the private sector was the deep restructuring of the division I was in charge of in within Ringier Romania, the result being that the newspaper and magazine titles in my portfolio accounted for 50 % of the group’s turnover and almost 100 % of the group’s profit.
ii. As Minister of Culture, I was able to restructure and streamline the budget to allocate 270 % more money to domestic cultural projects than in the preceding year.
iii. As a senator and group leader I supported, negotiated in the committees and got the votes for the investment programmes of the Government, including recovery and resilience fund (RRF) projects, which reached almost 7 % of Romania’s GDP in 2024.
Independence
7. The Treaty stipulates that the Members of the Court of Auditors must be ‘completely independent’ in the performance of their duties. How would you act on this obligation in the discharge of your prospective duties?
A: If confirmed, as a Member of the Court of Auditors, I commit myself to carry out my duties in full independence and with the highest ethical standards, in the general interest of the European Union and of the European citizens, and in full respect of the Treaties’ provisions and the Rules of Procedure of the Court. I will fully comply with the provisions of the Code of conduct for ECA members and observe the ethical principles enshrined therein: integrity, independence, objectivity, competence, professional behaviour, confidentiality, transparency, dignity, commitment, loyalty, discretion and collegiality.
I will neither seek nor take instructions from any government or other institution, body office, or entity. At the same time, I shall refrain from any action incompatible with my prospective duties, striving to set an example by my personal conduct. Even after the cessation of my duties, I undertake to ensure the confidentiality of information and respect the rules concerning appointments and benefits.
In this role, I will ensure that the Court’s independence is rigorously protected and that my duties are performed with integrity, impartiality and a strong commitment to the highest standards of public service.
8. Do you or your close relatives (parents, brothers and sisters, legal partner and children) have any business or financial holdings or any other commitments, which might conflict with your prospective duties?
A: Neither I nor any member of my family have any business or financial interests that could give rise to a conflict of interest with the duties and responsibilities associated with the role of Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
9. Are you prepared to disclose all your financial interests and other commitments to the President of the Court and to make them public?
A: Yes, I am ready to disclose all requested information and provide a declaration of interest in accordance with the European Court of Auditors’ Code of Conduct and ethical guidelines, ensuring complete transparency and accountability.
10. Are you involved in any current legal proceedings? If so, please provide us with details.
A: No, I am not involved in any current legal proceedings.
11. Do you have any active or executive role in politics, if so at what level? Have you held any political position during the last 18 months? If so, please provide us with details.
A: Yes, I am currently the leader of the Buzau County organisation of the Social Democratic Party and the national spokesperson of the party for all matters.
12. Will you step down from any elected office or give up any active function with responsibilities in a political party if you are appointed as a Member of the Court?
A: Yes, without any hesitation. Becoming a member of ECA means that I will put an end to my political career.
13. How would you deal with a major irregularity or even fraud and/or corruption case involving persons in your Member State of origin?
A: If such a case happens, I would handle it in the same manner as any other case of fraud in any other Member State, with the utmost independence and integrity, taking a fully impartial, objective, unbiased and professional approach.
Upholding impartiality and integrity, respecting the rule of law, strictly following established policies, rules, and procedures, and ensuring fairness and equal treatment are all essential for any institution to function effectively and maintain the trust of EU citizens.
Performance of duties
14. What should be the main features of a sound financial management culture in any public service? How could the ECA help to enforce it?
A: Within the framework set by the Financial Regulation, sound financial management is understood as budget implementation in compliance with the three principles of:
i) economy
ii) efficiency
iii) effectiveness.
Public funds must be used for the public good, upholding the fundamental principles of transparency and accountability, which are the two key pillars of good governance.
I strongly believe that transparency, fairness and accountability, with a focus on performance as well, should be seen as the main features of implementing these principles and fostering a sound financial management culture in public service and these have been guiding elements in both my private and public-sector career.
What is more, the challenging context we are facing requires that we all do our utmost to rebuild and strengthen citizens’ trust in public institutions and decision-making processes at national and European levels. In this regard, I see added value in a multilayered approach aiming to ensure that proper budgetary planning is accompanied by ethical governance and transparent reporting, followed by a thorough controlling and accountability process, all supported by clear and proactive communication efforts at each of these stages. Not least, I see merit in incorporating early risk analysis and mitigation in all stages described above, to ensure the best possible outputs.
The ECA has the important role of helping to establish a culture of professional financial management and ensuring its sustainability across all EU institutions. The ECA delivers recommendations and monitors their implementation, both key activities for the above-mentioned role. Identifying best practices and issuing audit recommendations are essential ways to strengthen sound financial management. Furthermore, the ECA’s substantial moral authority can help inspire more transparent and accountable accounting practices throughout the EU.
The ECA also plays a significant role in simplifying the legislative framework and administrative procedures where appropriate, contributing to effective financial management and facilitating necessary reforms. The EU needs simpler procedures with less bureaucracy, and the ECA can play a vital role in Europe’s simplification agenda.
15. Under the Treaty, the Court is required to assist Parliament in exercising its powers of control over the implementation of the budget. How would you further improve the cooperation between the Court and the European Parliament (in particular, its Committee on Budgetary Control) to enhance both the public oversight of the general spending and its value for money?
A: As a prospective Member of the Court of Auditors, I assure you of my commitment to building a relationship based on openness, transparency, mutual trust and efficiency between the European Parliament – in particular its Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) – and the Court of Auditors. As we are still early in the current institutional and legislative cycle, I believe we need to work, from both sides, to further strengthen the connection between the two institutions and foster a culture of constant engagement between the CONT Committee and the ECA. As such, if confirmed, I would like to assure you of my full openness to dialogue and suggestions on how to improve and strengthen the Court’s contributions in support of the decision-making process in the CONT Committee, meant to allow Parliament to exercise its democratic oversight effectively, particularly when exercising its powers of control over the implementation of the budget. Also given the current difficult regional and international context, I cannot stress enough the importance of safeguarding the EU budget – both at EU and national levels – and I am aware that this is a prime concern for this Parliament and for the CONT Committee in particular.
By working together, we can ensure that any expenditure of EU money is made in a legal, responsible, and accountable manner, having at heart the best interests of the EU and its citizens.
Moreover, since Members of the European Parliament directly represent the interests of EU citizens, it is crucial to incorporate their perspectives to ensure the ECA’s work remains relevant to the challenges faced by EU citizens, while upholding the Court’s full independence in its work.
16. What added value do you think performance auditing brings and how should the findings be incorporated in management procedures?
A: Compliance audits, financial audits and performance audits complement each other. While compliance auditing verifies whether activities and programmes comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, performance auditing evaluates whether these activities and programmes have been executed optimally.
In the context of the implementation of the current multi-annual financial framework for 2021-2027, the Court of Auditors has already recommended future-proofing EU funding for climate adaptation as part of the EU’s economic growth strategy, with implications for the EU’s competitiveness both internally and externally. This contributed to building a results-oriented approach and ensuring that financial decisions are properly translated into effective actions and solutions to the benefit of EU citizens.
Building on this model, further actions could be envisaged in order to support the proper follow-up to the efficiency of spending on the EU’s competitiveness objectives, based on performance auditing, also taking into account the need to consider the EU’s overall development objectives.
In the same logic, a stronger focus on performance could prove useful in support of the new Commission objectives related to simplification and accountability, also with respect to public procurement procedures. Performance-based evaluations could also consider the administrative costs at the level of Member States, as well as at the level of the business community. Performance auditing offers forward-looking insights, evaluating whether processes are functioning effectively to achieve the set targets and goals.
Given the projected increased complexity of the EU financial instruments, accountability and traceability of EU funds becomes even more important, also as a prerequisite of the performance-based model, to be considered in the future endeavours of the Court of Auditors, as well as in the relationship with the other EU institutions with budgetary responsibilities – namely the European Commission and the European Parliament.
That being said, we must always strive to make recommendations that are both relevant and practical, and that can be clearly understood and embraced by the audited entity, especially by the appropriate management level with the competence to implement them optimally in terms of time, cost, and resources.
17. How could cooperation between the Court of Auditors, the national audit institutions and the European Parliament (Committee on Budgetary Control) on auditing of the EU budget be improved?
A: At this stage, I cannot provide a definitive answer, as I have yet to assess the matter from the perspectives of either the Committee on Budgetary Control or ECA. Gaining practical experience at the Court of Auditors will be essential in forming a well-informed view.
What is clear, however, is that the cooperation between the Court of Auditors and national audit bodies, as outlined in Article 287(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, is crucial for effective budgetary control. In the context of shared management, leveraging the expertise of national auditors is particularly important.
Maintaining an open dialogue with the budgetary and legislative authorities, national SAIs, and other stakeholders strengthen the institution’s relevance and the impact of its work.
Both the European Parliament (through the CONT Committee) and national audit institutions that report to national parliaments are key stakeholders for the ECA, with a shared goal of safeguarding the EU budget and ensuring optimal use of EU taxpayers’ money. In this regard, the ECA should continue to share its relevant reports with national audit bodies and other institutions to keep them informed of its activities and to communicate its recommendations on pertinent policy areas.
Therefore, I believe that a well organised, transparent exchange of information, a strong understanding of each side’s needs, and effective collaborative arrangements are key to success. Any actions taken must uphold the legal framework for cooperation, ensuring both the obligation to work in good faith and the independence of the Court of Auditors and national audit bodies.
Moreover, I would encourage direct structured dialogue between the Contact Committee and the EP Committee on Budgetary Control, with regular exchanges on good practices and lessons learned, effective budget implementation and control, governance, transparency and accountability matters. Additionally, I believe that joint risk analyses could also be a part of this more structured dialogue, a common understanding on challenges and specific risk across the EU, and exchange on ways to address these.
At its end, the European Parliament also plays a significant role in raising awareness of the ECA’s work and the EU budget control system among their constituents. Also, the Members of the European Parliament should help the audit authorities in their respective Member States to better understand the challenges they face in carrying out their duties.
18. How would you further develop the reporting of the ECA to give the European Parliament all the necessary information on the accuracy of the data provided by the Member States to the European Commission?
A: High-quality reporting is based mainly on the quality of data provided. ECA evaluation and reporting depends on the quality of the data provided, especially since it supports the European Parliament in consolidating its budgetary decisions.
In this respect, also considering that European statistics are public goods, and building on the current Regulation on European Statistics, it is important to analyse, in dialogue with the European Commission and the other institutions, how the current system could be improved to focus on new data sources, new technologies and insights generated by the digital era, as to ensure that the data provided reflect the new set of challenges and economic realities in order to support the reasoning of EU decisions and policy objectives.
Always remembering that the Court itself has limited resources and must best use them to report its work.
Other questions
19. Will you withdraw your candidacy if Parliament’s opinion on your appointment as Member of the Court is unfavourable?
A: As a former member of the Romanian parliament and former committee chair, I have full respect for the decisions of the European Parliament. In this respect, if any doubts were raised about my integrity or independence, I would of course consider, after discussions with my Member State, withdrawing my nomination. I would also carefully consider the views and discussions in the Budgetary Control Committee regarding the areas of professional improvement and act accordingly.
Nevertheless, since I was nominated by the Romanian Government and the procedure under the TFEU states that the Council has the final decision, I consider that following the full procedure is the correct way to act that respects all the institutions involved.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE
Date adopted |
18.3.2025 |
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Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
22 2 5 |
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Members present for the final vote |
Georgios Aftias, Gilles Boyer, Caterina Chinnici, Tamás Deutsch, Dick Erixon, Daniel Freund, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, Niclas Herbst, Monika Hohlmeier, Virginie Joron, Kinga Kollár, Giuseppe Lupo, Marit Maij, Claudiu Manda, Csaba Molnár, Fidias Panayiotou, Jacek Protas, Julien Sanchez, Jonas Sjöstedt, Carla Tavares, Tomáš Zdechovský |
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Substitutes present for the final vote |
Maria Grapini, Erik Marquardt, Bert-Jan Ruissen, Vlad Vasile-Voiculescu, Annamária Vicsek |
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Members under Rule 216(7) present for the final vote |
Andrzej Halicki, Valentina Palmisano, Georgiana Teodorescu |
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