Iurie Leancă

Early career

Iurie Leancă was born on October 20, 1963, in Cimișlia. His father is Moldovan and his mother Bulgarian. He graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations and from 1986 until 1993, Leancă worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between May and October 1989, he served as second secretary at the Soviet embassy in Bucharest, Romania, first secretary in the political department of the foreign ministry of the Soviet Moldavia (1989–1990), and counselor of Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs specializing in European affairs (1990–1993).

Before the revolutions in Eastern Europe in 1989, Iurie Leanca worked for the Soviet Embassy in Bucharest. Between 1993 and 1997, he was the Minister-Counselor at the Embassy of Moldova in Washington, D.C. Then, he was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2002, in the Alliance for Democracy and Reforms cabinets and in the Vasile Tarlev Cabinet (1). Also, he was the acting Foreign Minister of Moldova from 27 July to 4 September 2001.

On 2 December 1998, in his capacity as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, he signed with the United Nations High Commissioner's Representative to Moldova, Oldrich Andrysek, a "Co-operation Agreement between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Government of the Republic of Moldova".

Moldovan Communists received a blow when the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in favor of the Metropolis of Bessarabia in its case against Moldova, on December 13, 2001. On October 2, 2001 the ECHR heard the case, with Minister of Justice Ion Morei representing the Moldovan government and Vlad Cubreacov, a Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party deputy, representing the Bessarabian Metropolitanate. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Iurie Leancă took the fall, and, on January 6, 2002 resigned amid charges that he had failed to vet Morei's speech. However, in 2009 Leancă stated that he had resigned following the formation of the Communist government.

He worked as the Ascom Group deputy CEO (2001–2005, 2007–2009). Also he was a Senior Adviser to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe High Commissioner on National Minorities (2005–2007).

He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) from 2009 to 2015. He was elected as MP in April 2009 election and July 2009 election. He resigned from the PLDM in early 2015, citing an insufficient commitment to pursuing pro-European reforms.

Leancă was the vice-president of The Foreign Policy Association of Moldova (2005–2009).

Foreign and European Integration Minister

Leancă was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Integration in the Vlad Filat Cabinet.

In a press conference on October 21, Leancă announced that official negotiations on the Moldova–EU association agreement would start on January 12, 2010.

He is married to Aida Leancă and has two children.

He speaks Romanian, Russian, English, French, Hungarian and Bulgarian.

Prime Minister

He was appointed Acting Prime Minister on 25 April 2013 following the decision of the Constitutional Court of Moldova to prevent then acting Prime Minister Vlad Filat from being reappointed to the position he had held since 2009. In May 2013, Leancă was proposed by the PLDM as its candidate for Prime Minister. On 15 May, he was designated Prime Minister by the President Nicolae Timofti and invited to form a government. Negotiations continued until 29 May 2013, when the Pro-European Coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Party and a break-away faction from the Liberal Party the Liberal Reformist Party, was agreed upon. The new government received the support of the Parliament with 58 votes on 30 May and was sworn-in on 31 May.