Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced on Thursday that he proposed Liberal politician Eduard Hellvig for heading the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), saying he was "the warranty for a European road of SRI". The seat of director at Romania's top intelligence service was left vacant after the previous director, George Maior, resigned in late January. Eduard Hellvig has been serving as a member of the European Parliament after he served as a minister in the Victor Ponta-led coalition government. He is a proponent of a stronger security collaboration with Germany than with Britain.
The choice comes as in December 2014 the High Court of Justice decided that Liberal member of the European Parliament Eduard Hellvig, a former minister of Regional Development, had not been in a state of incompatibility, as previously ruled in his case by the National Integrity Agency.
Hellvig used to serve as Development minister in the coalition government of Social Democrats and Liberals which came to power in 2012. But he resigned after the National Integrity Agency found him to be in a conflict of interest. He challenged the Agency ruling in court, saying that should it hold he would never again serve as minister. The High Court gave a final ruling in his favor in December last year.
He has since been elected as a member of the European Parliament.
Hellving has been very close to President Iohannis, but also to former Liberal leader Crin Antonescu and has worked for a firm owned by Dan Mihalache, President Iohannis' top aide.
He has exposed his views of international politics in an article published on his blog on January 8, 2015. He said he considered Romania should be more actively involved in a Washington-Berlin-Bucharest axis of Euro-Atlantic security relations, thus replacing London with Berlin in the security axis championed so far by previous president Traian Basescu.
He has also proved to be a critic of a "double play" towards Russia by Bulgaria, Cyprus and Italy and called Hungary a "Trojan horse" of Russia.
