Ilie Sârbu

Ilie Sârbu (born May 26, 1950) is a Romanian theologian, economist and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), he sat in the Romanian Senate from 2004 to 2015, representing Timiş County. In the Adrian Năstase cabinet, he was Agriculture Minister from 2000 until July 2004, and he held the same position in the Emil Boc cabinet between 2008 and 2009.

He and his wife Mariana have a daughter, Daciana Sârbu. She, in turn, is married to Victor Ponta, who served alongside Ilie Sârbu in the Boc cabinet.

He was born in Ciuta, Caraş-Severin County and holds two degrees, one obtained in 1975 from the Sibiu Theological Institute and one in 1998 from the University of Craiova Economics Faculty, with a Management specialty. He also studied Theology in Geneva (1984-1985), English in Birmingham (1989) and Finance in Germany (1994). Sârbu became a professor at the Caransebeş Theological Seminary in 1976 and its director in 1978, remaining until 1981. From 1981 to 1991, he was an economic adviser at the Metropolis of Banat of the Romanian Orthodox Church. During 2006, two accusations were made that Sârbu collaborated with the Securitate during the 1980s. The first came from a former Timiș County agent, who charged that Sârbu had been recruited for a mission to the Vatican; the latter denied this and presented a CNSAS certificate confirming that his name does not figure in existing files as having been an informant or agent. Then, after a second CNSAS certificate again exonerated him, it emerged that Sârbu's name appeared on a list belonging to the former spy Liviu Turcu, and that he had been a domestic agent; Sârbu vehemently denied the new claim (labelling Turcu a "traitor") and said he had in fact been under Securitate surveillance.

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